To experience adoption is a beautiful and profound gift. As a parent, it is humbling to know that God chose you to parent this child that came from someone else’s womb. To know that the course of this child’s life has potentially shifted drastically based on that choice to adopt. And then to experience the deep love for this child, no different than the children you birthed. It is in this full experience that you get a glimpse of our own adoption as believers. To grasp that He CHOSE us before the foundation of the world. That the course of our lives take a drastic turn once we are grafted into His family. And that His love for us is truly as His own child. Because we are. What we experience in the natural is but a shadow of what is true in the spirit.

There’s another perspective of this experience, from the child that is adopted. With some children, there may be insecurities that develop…questions of self worth because deep down some of them wonder why they were “given up”. That term conjures and feeds a feeling of not enough. And that seed begins the root of unworthiness. Now as they are adopted into this new family, with new parents and siblings, this presents a new dynamic. Are they treated with love and acceptance by their parents? Are they received with love and acceptance by their siblings? Perhaps there is the mature sibling who welcomes them, embraces who they are, brings them into the fold. Perhaps there is the immature sibling who reminds them they did not come from the same place. The answers to these questions will fuel or starve that feeling of unworthiness. But the catch here is that once that root has been planted, that unworthiness becomes a filter with which they experience the world. So it’s not just a question of whether they ARE accepted and loved, but if they FEEL accepted and loved. And the degree to which they perceive that will be the catalyst for their worth to grow or wither.

As believers we are adopted into a family. And Scripture – the Old AND the New – pour out God’s love for us. Page upon page, Word upon Word, we see His love…His patience…His grace…His protection…His provision. His love is undeniable. So the first question is, can we see it? Are the filters of hurt, distrust, cynicism, shame, and regret blocking our perception – so many filters we have in place that the Word must penetrate to reach our hearts and our spirit. Our awareness of these filters allows us to name them and sift through them and have our eyes opened to the truth. Because perceiving the truth of His love abolishes the idea that we are not enough.

As we are adopted, we gain many brothers and sisters. Some of those siblings welcome us with open arms, mature in their spirituality, a beautiful reflection of the Father’s love for us. They make us feel as if we DO belong, despite where we came from. Some of those siblings are less mature spiritually, and they can remind us of where we really came from, what has tarnished our spirit, and they fuel those feelings of unworthiness. It is in these moments we must remember our adoption, that we were chosen, that we are heirs with Christ. Feel the Father’s love. And we must always be aware of our perception. Am I perceiving them – their choices, attitudes, looks – in truth? Our perceptions become our reality and shape our relationships – naturally and spiritually.

Just as God chose you…choose to see Him in truth today – you are His.

Ephesians 1:3-14
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Romans 9:8
8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.

Galatians 4:5–7
5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.