Adopted

I had the pleasure of welcoming home my friends, Paul and Chrissy, last night at the Nashville airport. Believe me, they were more than ready to be back. They have been in Ethiopia for the last ten days welcoming three new members to their family. Their kids were beautiful--two very pretty young ladies and one very tired little fellow. I am thankful for your prayers for them as they begin the task of mixing these three lives into a home that's already very active with four other kids.

As I watched Paul and Chrissy exit the terminal where their plane landed, I was caught up in the significance of that moment for those kids. Here they were, three very small fragile lives. They have little to "offer" Paul and Chrissy. There are no guarantees that this act of love will ever be "repaid." Paul and Chrissy have given themselves to three individuals with all the potential in the world but no promises. As I stood in the waiting area, watching the celebration of their return, my mind was struck by this passage of Scripture:

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. Romans 5:8 Message

This is such an incredible thought. God reached out in love towards me knowing that I had nothing to offer Him that He couldn't secure for Himself. No matter how hard we try, no matter how "good" we want to be, our best course of action is to rest in the knowledge that God pursues us. He stepped across the oceans of time and space and came to rest on our "turf." He opened His arms and His heart and welcomed us as His own...and there was nothing we could do to make ourselves ready. He just loved us--loves us still--that much.

Chrissy walked through the security checkpoint with her new baby boy crashed in her arms. He slept through every hug, every handshake and the loud excitement of his new siblings. He had no clue where he was or where he was headed, just that his mother's arms were a very safe place. May you and I find the peace to rest in our new adoption. Our father loves us with an "everlasting love." There is no safer place to be.