As I considered the questions at the end of the teaching this past weekend, I’m so thankful that all of the theological aspects are true for me. However, pondering the second question, “Which one resonates the strongest with you?” there was no doubt… adoption came to my mind immediately. In Ephesians 1:5, it says, God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. (NLT) This verse is so comforting, so exciting, and so encouraging; the God of the universe is pursuing me! The words God decided in advance to adopt me into His own family, this is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure all speak into my life.
Much of my life I have felt like I don’t fit in. My parents got married just like most couples, to be together “‘til death do us part”, but that is not how it ended. As an adult looking back, I can see that I had a distorted view of what families should be like. As a kid, I had my own story of how it goes in a broken marriage. I longed for my parents to love each other. Families are made up of broken people in a broken world, and our family was definitely broken. The original first family, Adam and Eve, were broken, so why did I think it would be different for us? I felt abandoned as my father left our family to pursue other things. Though I had a father, I felt like an orphan in some ways. I felt fatherless, longing for a healthy father-daughter relationship and the protection and pursuit that comes with it.
Though I had a father, I felt like an orphan in some ways. I felt fatherless, longing for a healthy father-daughter relationship, and the protection and pursuit that comes with it.
As I came to faith, I began to understand that God ‘is a father to the fatherless’ and that He was pursuing me. He wanted me to be a part of a relationship with Him so much so that He sent Jesus to die on the cross to bridge that gap between Him and me and to cover my sin. And as we see in this verse in Ephesians, God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family. He planned on adopting me all along, regardless of my wounds and my thoughts on family. God wanted to pursue me, to protect me and even more than that, it gave Him great pleasure! Imagine that - it gave Him, the God of the universe, great pleasure to have a relationship with me, even at the cost of His Son.
God planned on adopting me all
along, regardless of my wounds
and my thoughts on family.
along, regardless of my wounds
and my thoughts on family.
I do fit in, I’m part of a ‘perfect family’ and God is my Father, my Dad, the One who loves me and wants to be with me. Now in a family of my own, I am still broken and my family is still made up of broken people, in the same broken world that I grew up in. We each need Jesus every day; but He is the difference! As we each pursue a relationship with our Savior, he heals the brokenness and gives us hope each day. My desire is to be sensitive to those around me who feel unloved, lost, and fatherless because of the experiences and woundedness from my childhood that God continues to redeem. I am called to share God as I experience Him, as a father to the fatherless, with those around me who are also searching to be loved and accepted.
-Joy Jones, Director of Women’s Ministries