I recently created a 31-day Advent/Christmas devotional booklet for my church called “Glory to God in the Highest.” I will be posting a devotional from it each day between now and the end of the year. Enjoy!
Scripture: John 1:11-13; Matthew 12:49-50; Romans 8:15
I was adopted. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know that I was adopted. My adoptive parents assured me from the beginning that I was extra special because “they chose me.” Except for a fistfight I got into with some classmates who teased me about it in third grade, being adopted never seemed like a big deal to me.
But in the back of my mind I often wondered: Where am I from? Who are my biological parents? Whom am I related to?
Now that I’m older, these questions don’t matter as much as they used to. In part because I’m a parent myself. I know from experience that neither childbirth nor the events leading up to it—as important as they are—can begin to compare to everything that comes afterwards. Parenting, after all, is the most rewarding, heartbreaking, amazing, and frustrating endeavor that human beings can be involved in!
My point is this: Even if I don’t know my genealogy, I know who my mom and dad are. They couldn’t have loved me more if they had given birth to me. I’m as much a part of their family as someone who was born into it.
Now consider Paul’s words in Romans 8:15: Through faith in Christ, we have been adopted into God’s family. God is Abba, our Father. We have the same status before God as Jesus himself. Like him, we are God’s children.
As a result, while I may not know where I’m from, I know where I’m going. While I may not know my earthly father, I know my heavenly Father. That matters more than anything.