In a few months, our lives will forever be changed by Eli.
We’ll go from just being married and living life as we please, to having a
family, being parents and focused on this little one. We sat listening to our case
worker yesterday explain how Eli will begin to trust us. How we are
to be there when he cries, when he’s wet, when he’s hungry. And all these
things will begin to build his trust. We’ll bond and hopefully work through any
attachment issues that may arise. And while the adoption will be apart of his
life (forever) it won’t be what defines him. It will be his personality, his
relationship with us and his relationship with others and hopefully, one day,
his relationship with Christ.
The whole process though makes me think about my
relationship with Christ and how God is always there and completely trustworthy.
It’s so much more than being adopted by Christ and into the family of God; it’s
about my relationship with Him and growing stronger in Him each and every day. I
mean, it would be easy if all we had to do was walk down the aisle, say a
prayer, sign a card and that be it. But scripture clearly lays it out, that we
are to repent and follow Him (Matt. 4:19). We are a new creature in him (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are
to be radically changed (Romans 12:2). We should not be deceived by the simple steps of
salvation and the free gift of God and assume that’s our only role as a child
of God. Sadly, this is what many believe.
Just as Eli’s life will forever be changed because of his
encounter with us and the adoption into our family, so should our lives be from
our encounter with Christ and our adoption into Christ’s family. And yet, so
often it’s not. There’s no difference. And we simply blend right in with the
rest of the world.
I can only pray that as Eli grows up, he can see a
difference in his parents. That our relationship with Christ isn’t something we
have to convince him of, but that through our love, actions and living life together,
he will see the joy, the peace, the love, the fellowship, the understanding and
the need of salvation from an Almighty God that has adopted us into his family.
"Jesus is clearly, absolutely worthy of far more than church attendance and casual association. Jesus is worthy of total radical abandonment and supreme adoration." -David Platt
How many of us though have accepted the "ticket to Heaven"... the "free pass"... and in return, offered an occasional prayer, simply warmed up the pew on Sunday morning but even worse not truly repented... just so that we can say "We've been adopted in to the family of Christ?"
Most of my posts (especially on the adoption) won't be so blunt... but I want to make sure that I'm clear with those of you who are reading... the only way, the only reason, the only thing that truly makes sense about Paul & I adopting Eli is that because we have been adopted by Christ, he has made it possible for us to adopt Eli. We've never been told that we can't have children but we honestly feel that God has laid it on our hearts to fly across the world to a country that is poor and hurting and adopt a little boy so that he will one day grow up and not just know of Jesus but be a Follower of Christ.
What are you doing in your life, right now, today, so that others would see Jesus through you?
ARE YOU FOLLOWING CHRIST?