Adoption

“We must cease striving and trust God to provide what He thinks is best and in whatever time He chooses to make it available. But this kind of trusting doesn't come naturally. It's a spiritual crisis of the will in which we must choose to exercise faith.”
― Charles R. Swindoll


     Sometimes it amazes me how God takes all of my little experiences in life and teaches me through them today.  This morning He has brought three separate incidents to my mind.  One is an experience of my own and two are stories others told me. 
     First, He brought back to me a memory of being lost in Houston.  I had a friend on the phone and he asked me to give him the next street name.  I was so busy looking for street names, that I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings.  When I finally gave him the names of the street I was on and the cross street, his first words to me were, "Listen to me.  I don't care which direction you go, but you lock your doors, pick a direction and get out of there as fast as you can".  That's when I began to notice how different I was from the people around me.  There was not one person like me.  This in itself was not a bad thing.  It didn't scare me.  It was when I noticed they had noticed me.  They were standing on the street and in cars, all looking at me as though I had broken some rule and they were deciding how to deal with it.  I learned at a young age not to appear lost.  Always appear to know exactly where you are going for your own safety, but this time it was different.  I was on territory that I did not belong in.  My gut told me this was a time to look lost.  I was portraying innocence.  I did not intentionally break the rules, it was an accident.  I was not aware.  I picked up the key map on the seat next to me and looked down at it and then at the street signs all the way out of that area.  Instinct said I was in danger and instinct led me out.
     What God was actually showing me this morning was that we all have times when we find ourselves somewhere we do not belong.  We aren't like the others.  But when we find our way back to where we belong there is such a huge relief, it can bring tears to our eyes.  Safety.  Security.  A sense of belonging is what we want in this life.  What God was showing me was what it feels like to be a part of His family.  When we accept Christ in our hearts it should feel like coming home.  There should be a sense of belonging to His family, but mostly to Him.  We slip under His protective wing and all is well, even through the storms of life.  I see this in my friends.  They belong to Him and they worship Him as their Father, as their security, as their rescuer, their everything.  I have moments of this, brief moments.
     The next story God brought to my attention this morning was a story told to me by a man I looked up to for guidance.  We were talking about fear.  It also takes place in Houston.  his father and step-mother were foster parents for many years.  They were asked to take in a little boy and a little girl, brother and sister.  They fell in love with these kids and set out to adopt them right away.  But, these kids had been abused.  They had been badly neglected.  They found out that the kids were stuffing their pockets with food during dinner out of fear they might not be fed the next time they were hungry.  The couple found the stash of food they had been accumulating.  It was becoming moldy and old.  My friend telling me the story said his parent's had been very strict when he was young and their reaction to these children was opposite of what he expected.  He assumed they would discipline and put locks on the refrigerator and pantry.  They did not.  They dumped the stash and replaced it with fresh food.  When the children were caught sneaking food in the middle of the night, instead of sending them back to bed, they all sat down and had a snack together.  Repeatedly they told the kids they could eat anytime.  Their love for the kids was available, but the healing didn't start until the children decided one day, in a small way at first, to trust their new parents.  Even if it was just a little bit.
     What God was showing me here, is obvious.  He adopts us.  He chooses us.  Some of us don't just fall into the arms of the "New Parent" and live happily ever after.  Trusting doesn't come naturally.  Learning to be loved is like being a foreigner in a far off land.  We have to learn the language.  We have to learn the expected behavior.  Instead of disciplining us for our wounds, He gives us more of His love.
     The third story broke my heart even more than the last.  A young doctor and his wife adopted two "special needs" children.  Two boys.  The oldest had behavioral problems.  The youngest was born to a 13 year old girl who was raped by her father.  He would never talk.  he would never be trained to use the bathroom.  This was a big responsibility that took tremendous love.  Later in life when the doctor left his wife for  younger woman and started a "new" family, he went to the courts to "disown" the boys he had adopted.  The judge was furious.  He explained to the doctor that when you adopt a child, you go out of your way to say, "You are mine.  I want you."  It's not like you weren't being careful and got pregnant.  Adoption is intentional.  The judge refused to allow him to walk away from his responsibility, at least financially.  That was all he could do. 
     God says He will never let go of us.  He will never show up in the courts of heaven to say, I changed my mind.  We can't be un-adopted.  No matter the rejection by the humans in this world, God makes up for what we have gone without, but we have to allow it.  Free will. 

Graham Cooke
"God's love for us is not based on how well we do. He allows us to fail when He could have prevented it - maybe because He wants us to see how much we are loved we can't seem to do anything right. He gives us freedom to fail and His intention is to show us that we are still His beloved."