The Greatest Secret: How Being God's Adopted Children Changes EverythingSample

 Adoption – A spiritual blessing 

I meet many people who struggle to find God and to love him. Perhaps it is because of difficulties at work or with health or in church. Perhaps it is because of the terrible things we see on the news or hear about in our own communities. Perhaps it is because we sense there is some sort of cover-up going on when it comes to faith. Perhaps it is for totally different reasons. From my experience and from talking to others it seems that far more of us struggle to grasp God’s love than we might expect. There are swathes of us who find ourselves feeling that we don’t quite fit in, and wondering who we really are and what we are really supposed to be doing. 

Many adopted children know something of these struggles as they forge their way through complex family dynamics and try to make sense of the story of their lives. Adopting a child into my family has opened my eyes to some of these issues, and how similar they are to those faced by Christians grappling to understand their adoption into God’s family. 

I want my adopted daughter to know she is mine. I will not give up on her. I will not be going anywhere. I love her fiercely. I wonder if God wants you to know a Father like this – perfectly like this? Many of us experience the anxiety of not being sure if we are really good enough, or if we really belong anywhere, or if we are truly loved, or if we can really trust anyone. Many of us struggle to make sense of our life stories – we have unexplained or unresolved episodes of our lives that we long to piece together. Understanding that God is our adoptive Father could begin to change everything. 

Adoption has been a dirty secret in the church for too long. There have indeed been cover-ups perpetuated to avoid talking about it. Our pastors, and youth leaders have much preferred to preach and talk about forgiveness or rescue, freedom and redemption, without noticing that without the missing ingredient of adoption, even these amazing truths are impoverished. The theme of adoption is neglected in our pulpits, our songs, our programs and our gospel, even though it is present throughout our Bibles, from Job to Jesus, from Moses to Paul, from the prophets to the epistles. Failing to reflect on or celebrate our adoption skews our faith, limits our relationship with God and undermines our sense of identity, purpose and confidence. The good news is that everything can change. Instead of a flawed sub-biblical understanding of Christianity, the Spirit of adoption wants to seismically recast the way we understand faith, read Scripture, practise discipleship and experience God’s love.