Embraced by Grace
A Story of Adoption
In late February, 2009, I knelt on our sunroom floor and prayed for a deeper understanding of grace. I knew I must be missing something,, because in spite of a lifetime of reading, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith… not by works… ,” I found myself continually trying to earn God’s favor and quench His anger by doing the right things and avoiding the wrong ones.
No matter how sincere my efforts, I was failing miserably. Selfishness, pride, greed, faithlessness… my list of sins and shortcomings was long and ugly. If God truly loved me, His love couldn't be based on anything I had to offer, because I was (and am) a mess.
Two months later I sat in my sunroom once again, this time seeking God's direction regarding adoption. I was frightened to embark on such an unfamiliar journey, worried about the unanswered questions and potential pitfalls. “Am I really cut out for this?” I asked Him. “Why would You choose me for this, and why now?”
Suddenly the memory of my earlier prayer came rushing back. Like a whisper in my spirit, I could almost hear Him answering, “This is what you asked me to show you, Daughter. This is grace.”
For the first time, the scattered pieces began to slide into alignment.… Somewhere in the world a precious child needed the love and protection of a parent. Adopting would mean major sacrifices of time, money, and emotional energy just to bring that child home, not to mention a lifetime of parenting to follow. But regardless of the cost or what the future might hold, that child needed a family, a home, love… lavish, unconditional, unending love. That child needed grace.
And so do I. I can't stand in the presence of a holy God and claim to belong there based on my own merit. I'm helpless to save myself; I need Him to do it for me...to make whatever sacrifice is required to bring me home. Thankfully, that's exactly what He did. A rugged cross and an empty tomb tell the story of my adoption. It happened over 2000 years ago, on a hill just outside Jerusalem. It happened through Jesus.
This is the first portrait of grace in adoption. I didn’t recognize the second until recently, when I really began to fall in love with a child whose face I’ve never seen. A child whose love I don’t deserve to receive, and whose presence in my life will be as much an evidence of God’s grace toward me as the act of adoption is of grace toward my child.
The second portrait of grace is this: I am unworthy of the blessing of loving or being loved by my adopted child, or my husband, or even my parents. Yet they love me anyway, for the same reason I love a faceless, nameless child in Rwanda—because of God’s grace.
“This is what you asked me to show you, Daughter. This is grace.…”
In the timeless words of 1 John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.” Lavishly. Sacrificially. Unconditionally. That is what grace looks like. And that’s what adoption is all about.
Embraced by grace. Run into His arms, and discover the miracle of adoption.
“How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.”
Ephesians 1:3-6 (The Message)
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