Overwhelmed & Adopted

I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed.

Although I won't be actually "working" for six more weeks, I already feel behind. I've double-booked myself several days, there are so many pictures to go through, so many blogs to write - memories to capture before they are erased from my mind. I think culture-shock hits harder coming home. Our America is so different...so fast paced. Being a mom is hard work. Technology surrounds and at times invades us. Not having my church home is kinda hard.

I think that I will slowly sift through my pictures and my notes. I hope to continue writing about my time in Israel, but I know that other things of this world will soon overtake it. But the blog that has most been on my heart is about adoption...

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I have no personal connection with adoption. I don't know anyone who has been adopted and don't know anyone who has adopted a baby. The closest thing I know is that I thought I wanted to adopt a "Haiti-Baby" after the earthquake. But, I have no personal investment in what adoption means to real families.

Yet, I know the Bible is full of the mention of adoption. I have been told for years, and having been teaching children for years, that we are adopted into the family of God. I know it on the surface - but what does that even mean?

I witnessed the beauty of adoption on the Mount of Olives. It was one of my favorite moments in Jerusalem.

As you know, God made a covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15, 17). God promised that he would be the father of many nations. Abraham's descendants are children of God - they are God's chosen people. History is full of how God has worked through them and with them - how God has blessed them and punished them. The Old Testament is their heritage.

A few years ago a Messianic Jew came to our church during the season of Lent. He showed us how Christ fits into the Jewish Passover - the symbolism between who He is and what Passover is all about. I was fascinated. Last year during Sunday school the children did a unit on Feasts and Festivals - learning all about Jewish holidays. You always learn by teaching - and I learned a lot about Jewish traditions. I decided then that I wanted to be Jewish. But I'm not Jewish. I know a little about my family ancestry - and I don't think that there is any Jewishness in there at all. But still I admire them and their history.

Being in their land, learning their history, hearing the stories of Abraham and David and their descendants - I was a little jealous it wasn't my history, my heritage. I love learning about genealogy and I want this to be apart of my genealogy.

But wait...it is. Abraham is my "father," too. God's promise to Abraham includes me - I am an heir. How can that be? Adoption.

"Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will - but born of God." John 1:12-13

"You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Galatians 3:26-29

You see, God was the God of the Israelites. The other people of the world were mainly pagan. They worshiped Baal, or this god or that god. They worshiped idols. They built temples to Greek gods and Roman gods. It was the Israelites who believed that there is only ONE God. Even though there were many times they slipped away - forgot who they were, whose they were, they were God's chosen. Before Christ, my ancestors were most likely pagan. I am a Gentile. Gentiles were pagan and unclean in the sight of God - not heirs of the promise of Abraham. But God sent His Son, Jesus, for all people. To save all of humanity. To be the one God of all.

And so, as I stood on the Mount of Olives I looked around me. People from all over the world had descended upon this place. Languages from every corner of the earth could be heard. A beautiful sound filled the air - a song of worship. I looked and saw a group of Koreans who had gathered to sing praises to our God. A man played his guitar and lead the group in singing. Although I could not understand a word, I knew they were worshiping and I knew who they were worshiping. I stood in awe of the beauty of the moment. These people were definitely not Jewish. But, like me, they had become children of God through adoption - through the blood of Christ.

It is my history and my heritage. Through adoption I am a child of God - loved, saved, and redeemed.