Unshakeable

"His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ." - Ephesians 1:5 (NIT)

As the parent of an adopted child this piece of scripture has significant meaning to me. Truth be told when I was younger and trying to decide between Buddhism and Taoism as my spiritual path for life, I kept running into a problem. There was this guy; about thirty or so, beard, beige cloak, peaceful demeanor, crown of thorns and all that. I just couldn't dismiss him. I also just couldn't understand him, or his death or why any God of the universe would seek to sacrifice him for my sake or anyone else's.

I wonder if any of us could sacrifice our child to save ten billion people and counting. Especially when the "sacrifice" was mostly figurative, not literal in an eternal sense. Taken from God's perspective He was just bringing Jesus home, to heaven, to a place much better than Earth in every way. The ending was brutal and yet we humans - the object of all His tireless efforts - have a tendency to mostly focus on valor and glory only when they are properly framed in the right measure of brutality. Whatever. So be it. Lesson given. Example displayed. But why?

In adopting our child, Maxime and I had to pay a price and make some choices: we had to be willing to change our lives and mess with our son's singular identity as an only child. To be honest, he was kinda digging that role. But Anthony had to be on board with the whole idea and we as a family had to find it in our hearts to reach out to another human being, another human life, a little girl as it turned out, and bring her to us, and take her in and love her no matter who she wanted to be or how she turned out.  Yet Sophia could have come to us blind, with a genetic or emotional defect of some kind, or of a race that we weren't sure we were equipped to raise, or even drug dependent in some way. In short, she wasn't "blood" (as if that really ever guarantees anything, but you get the idea). We just couldn't be sure what we were getting. As you can see our adoption was very human, in many ways, filled with human thoughts, human conditions, some selfish concerns, a ton of hope and not a little bit of fear. We had to try and transcend all that, and get as close to faith and unconditional love as we possibly could, just like all adoptive parents have to.

But in adopting us God did not have to pay any special price. But he did. Why? To get our attention. God says "Look at the price I will pay to adopt you into my family." We see the sacrifice of Jesus and then what does God do immediately after that? "Oh, and thanks for noticing that sacrifice. By the way, here's a little proof of heaven. He's resurrected. He's fine. He's now appointed as your savior. All you have to do, just like Doubting Thomas, is reach out." Once that happens God's adoption occurs and it is like no other, because God brings nothing but love to the table. Nothing. You are adopted into a family like no other; one that is full of grace, that does not judge, that is unshakeable and even free of death. What an amazing gift that is.