Almost 11 years ago my wife and I decided, through much prayer and guidance of the Holy Spirit, that we were going to adopt a baby. Although Nathan has just turned 10, the early beginnings of orientation and training are still very fresh in my mind and heart. I remember being taught many things that have helped me tremendously in raising my two kids.

Before I began this process I used to think, “How could someone give away a baby to me?” I remember asking many people over the year who had adopted how someone could give away a child.

I learned that no child is ever given away. I realized that behind every child that is adopted, there was someone who made a plan for their life. This was a very special plan that involved giving this child life—-even allowing them a full life.

Paul writes: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he has chosen us before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will.” Ephesians 1:3-5 (NKJV)

We are adopted in Christ. Adoption expresses a change of nature and change of relation. To be adopted is to be brought into a divine family. This is now our identity. We are adopted by God by his decree. It is not accidental or an afterthought, because it is the placing as a son and a daughter. The dual meaning is full standing in the family with a future and inheritance.

God has blessed us, so in return we bless him. We are blessed from our past, we are redeemed in the present and we have a complete inheritance in our future.

Just as someone made a plan to give life to my two kids, God has made a tremendous plan for our lives. He has chosen us to have full standing in the family of God. Nathan and Anna have full standing in our family, and we, as believers, have full standing in Christ. 

John and Jackie Bodine live in Mobile, Ala., where John is the student minister at West Mobile Baptist Church and Jackie is a nurse. They have adopted two children, Nathan and Anna, through Buckner.

Prayers of the Week:
-God, thank you for your perfect plan of redemption through Christ. Your gifts to us are good and perfect.
-God, be with mothers who struggle to decide whether to parent or to make their children available for adoption. Give them peace in whatever decision they make, and help them to trust your plan for their lives and the lives of their children.

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