Joel C. Langley / Joel CLangley
When we think of someone adopted, we think of someone who has been abandoned, unwanted, or suffered great loss and then someone comes along who chooses to love them, bring them into their own life, and help them walk through the hurt, anger, and other issues of their lives. I have watched over the years as families have taken in broken and hurt people and loved them to health. To adopt a child is to choose to love them, even with all of their hurts and struggles. It is an amazing depth of love.That is what God, our Father, wants to do in our lives! He wants to bring us into His family and love us through the issues, hurt, and pain that we have accumulated in this world. The price for this adoption was His only begotten son, who died and arose to pay that price. The Father loves us even when we have huge issues and struggles. Despite what some people want you to believe about our Father, He doesn't toss us out when we drop the ball. He loves us in spite of our issues.Just as the Father loves us and brings us into His family and His heart, we should love others who are struggling and bring them lovingly into a relationship with the Father. We should live out the spirit of adoption in the lives of those around us. Sometimes that means getting our hands bloody or dirty, binding up deep wounds, but that is what the spirit of adoption does. That Spirit takes someone where they are, with all their faults, flaws, and failures, and loves them back to health, just like what the Father has done for us.
