GOD HAS CHOSEN YOU

“Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.  For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.” -Ephesians 1:3-6 CSB

“Christine?” Mum asked. “Since we’re telling the truth, would you like to know the whole truth?”

I was 33 at the time, and I knew the way my mum had asked that question could only mean one thing.

I had raced over to her house to intervene in what I just knew couldn’t be true. My brother, George, had received a letter saying he was adopted. I had walked in Mum’s front door just as George was handing her that letter.

I’ll never forget her hands starting to shake. The fear that filled her eyes. The loss of words she’d never had. And then the tears that began to flow endlessly, from us all.

When she found her voice, I could hear her heart breaking. “I’m so sorry you found out like this, George. We never meant to hurt you. Your dad loved you. I love you. I couldn’t have loved you more than if I’d given birth to you myself.”

I remember heading into the kitchen, spreading the table with food, because there’s one way that Greek families solve every kind of problem: we eat. 

It was when I had reached for the baklava that Mum asked me that all-telling question, and somehow, I knew. I just knew. Searching her eyes for the answer, wanting it to be anything other than what I was thinking, I found myself saying it for her: “I was adopted too.”

Minutes later, she said the most beautiful words to me. Words that brought such healing. She even repeated them to me in the weeks following… 

“I loved you before I knew you.”

 To this day, I cherish those words. They were the heart of a mother letting me know that she had longed for me, wanted me, and chosen me, even before she ever laid eyes on me. 

When I think of those words, I can’t help but hear the heart of my Heavenly Father, the one who has always wanted me, too. The one who chose me long before my mother ever did.

The same one who chose you.

PRAYER

God, thank you for choosing me as your daughter, and as someone to carry your son, Jesus, to my world. I pray that you give me the strength and courage to not only see others as you see them, but to actually step out in faith and reach them with your love. To help them feel chosen by you. Amen.

Adapted from 20/20: Seen.Chosen.Sent by Christine Caine. Copyright © 2019 by Christine Caine. Reprinted with permission of Lifeway Women. All rights reserved.