I recently had the joy of seeing a dear old friend (and by old I mean we’ve known each other a long time. We are not old. There really should be a separate word for this in English) and her family realize their dream of bringing two new daughters home through adoption. They’ve waited so long and their hearts have gone through unspeakable ache to come to this point. It’s awesome to see.
People often talk about adoption in how it reflects God’s adoption of us, but I think this time for me it has become clearer than ever. By that I mean I am more acutely aware of what it means for me, for us, to be adopted into His family.
My friend has written on her blog about the reality for her girls – how as much as they are happy to be adopted, it will take time for them to fully trust this new love, this new family. They have left all they know and come to a strange country and culture. I want to say to them, “You got great parents! You are so loved!” What they may understand at a head level may take time to sink deep into their hearts. I hope it happens quickly.
Aren’t we the same? When we enter a relationship with God, we are brought into a new kingdom, foreign to us. It doesn’t operate the way the world did. We come because we trust, at some level, the kindness of this King. We have no idea how long and how hard He has longed for us, to shower His love on us. Over time, hopefully, we will come to understand the depth of that love and come to define ourselves as His children.
In the meantime, we may have times when we doubt this new love. We may want to look back to things that used to comfort us. We may look at other people, other things, wondering if they will love us more. They won’t. They can’t. I hope that, especially as we look ahead to celebrating the birth of Christ, we can fully trust in this amazing love we have in our Father. He went through everything to get us, and He will not let us go. He longs for us to rest completely in our identity as His beloved children.
We are so very loved.
What I thought was going to be about adoption turned into a religious thing. not sure why. And take it from me -an adopted person: even though I have a loving family, a large set of cousins on both sides of the family. But a tiny part of me misses not knowing my biological roots. It hadn’t bothered me too much in the past but with my health issues: It seems that time is way shorter than originally thought. For all I know my biological “parents” may have died 2 years ago or 40 years ago.
I can totally understand your desire to know your roots. As for turning into a religious thing – well, love is a spiritual thing. I won’t say I completely understand adoption as we know it, but seeing friends adopt has made me think about adoption as it is talked about in the Bible. Just stirring up thoughts for me.
Love this…thank you, old friend! So true.
Karmen, it’s been such a joy seeing your girls come home. I’m sure there are challenges, but what a beautiful thing it is!
Great post. We tend to thing once we are adopted it’s done, but it’s not. It’s a lifetime to learning to trust – at 65 I’m still in the midst and I have seen some start to not trust when they were strong until 90. Each day brings a new set of circumstances. Thanks for the encouragement to think about how long he longed after us (another 2 words that it would be good if they were different – time and emotion!).
Maggie – yes, I think it’s part of the beauty of our relationship with Him. He never forces us to move toward Him, but His grace is always calling and always offering. It’s extravagant love!