Adopted

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
1 John 3:1

Daily Devotion – November 9, 2023

Devotion based on 1 John 3:1

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Twenty-four-year-old Jaime Cone had long known that she was an adopted child. Because the adoption had taken place so early in her life, she had no recollection of the world she’d left behind. She took her present life for granted. Her adoptive parents had given her a stable home. She did well in school. She had lots of friends. Hers was a secure, middle-class lifestyle with the usual little dramas of growing up. This world was normal to her because this was the only world she had ever known.

Her presumptions began to change when her adoptive parents decided it was time to give Jaime access to the files pertaining to her adoption. Much of what she read was sobering, chilling. The conditions in which she lived as a baby were dangerous and dark. The one steady light through all the files was her adoptive parents’ relentless determination to pursue her adoption, soldier through the many legal setbacks and disappointments, and to do whatever had to be done to make Jaime their own.

After digesting the files, Jaime came to realize how drastically different her life might have been. She also began to understand how much her adoptive parents loved her.

The apostle John wrote, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

The conditions of your former life and mine were deadly and dark. We were toxic, you and I—toxic through and through. We were addicted to sin, lost, adrift, angry, afraid, and determined not to have anything to do with God.

But he came for us anyway. God the Son came here in the person of Jesus. He did what had to be done to wash us clean at the cross, blanket us in his perfection, bring us to faith, and take us home.

All this makes us realize how drastically different our lives might have been. We also begin to understand how much our adoptive Father loves us.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, through faith in Jesus I am your child. Your love for me is beyond words. Thank you. Amen.

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