Romans - Part 4: SPIRITSample

Adoption

Adoption can be a wonderful, fulfilling event. Those adopted (primarily children) feel blessed and experience personal bonding. My father lived in an orphanage from the time he was two years old until he was six years old, then he was “farmed out” to a local farm family to become their physical slave. He lived, ate, and slept in the barn with the animals. He was required to do all types of physical labor on the farm, including working in the fields and taking care of the animals. If he did not do the labor correctly, he was punished by whipping. One time, when he did not close the gate correctly, a horse got out onto another farmer’s property. His punishment was having his arm severely cut by an ax.

When my father was nine years old, a young woman came by the farm and called to him while he was working in the field. He talked with her and discovered that she was his older sister. The farmer came by and threatened her, and she told him not to touch her brother again because he was going to be adopted by their uncle. The next day, my father’s sister and uncle came and took him from that place and his uncle and aunt adopted him into their family. He was no longer a slave or a servant. He was their son and heir.

The verse for today testifies that we are God’s children; we are no longer slaves to fear; we are His sons and daughters. Paul also shares, in Galatians 4:7, that we are no longer slaves, but sons and daughters, as well as heirs. We are rescued from a fatherless life, much like my father experienced when adopted, freed from a life of servitude to sin to a life of fellowship with God.

-Libby Cross