Walking In Our Father's Shoes
Recently, a frequent prayer of mine has been asking for God’s righteousness to go before me and that His footsteps would become my pathways. It’s a prayer that has its origin in Psalm 85:13. In my thoughts, I am imagining myself walking in the footsteps of Jesus. My son is only two years old and he has an obsession with putting on my shoes and walking around the house. I don’t believe I’m the only father who has had to hunt for his shoes. The need for purpose and identity are universal. It seems that every son has a longing to be like his Father.
My son is adopted. Heather and I, along with his big sister, brought him home in the fall of 2015. Adoption has given me a new appreciation for our position in Christ. As Jesus followers, we’ve been adopted into the family of God. Jesus Himself said, “I will not leave your orphans.”
It could seem, to the outsider, as if being an adopted son or daughter would be less significant than being a biological son or daughter. But let me assure you, from my own experience, my children may not carry my physical DNA, but they were very much born from my heart and are no less my children. Everything I have will be theirs. They have my full attention, affection, and provision. Just as my children are no less my children because they are adopted, we are no less God’s children because we’ve been adopted.
My understanding of historical adoption is limited, but the significance of context in Paul’s writing regarding adoption is profound. Understood by the Roman readers of the first century, adoption in biblical times under Psyro-Phoenician law stated that if you adopted a child that child would always be your child. A biological child could be disowned if they brought dishonor to the family, but an adopted child could never be disowned.
Not only is the need for purpose and identity universal, the need to belong is another God-given longing deposited in our hearts to lead us to our maker. A few years ago, Heather picked me up from work. My daughter, Abigail was sitting in the back seat and smiled at me in a way that conveyed belonging. Knowing that I’d given another person, my daughter, a place to belong has been one of the most gratifying experiences in my life. There was real grief in our home before we adopted our children, as our inability to have biological children didn’t seem fair. On the other side of our planet, injustice was having the upper hand yet again as two small infants separated by three years would be abandoned– one in a market place and the other alongside a highway. However, God’s justice would prevail as He took the injustice of inability to have children and our children's abandonment and created a family of four. Similarly, God justice prevails as He takes the pain and need of our own lives to lead us to a Savior and He is takes the injustice done to Jesus to build His own family.
We have been adopted as God’s children. As John in his gospel eloquently conveys, as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name. This same John would be known as the apostle of love, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the one who would rest his head on Jesus as they dined at the last supper. John in his first epistle is stirred, moved and in awe and wants us to see what he is seeing as he considers the manner of Father God’s love that has been lavished upon us, that we should be called God’s children. John could has easily said, "Take a look, it's crazy love that we should be called His children." We are God's children! This is a big deal- not something to be taken for granted. As Paul says in Romans 8, “And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” This adoption, Paul affirms in Ephesians 1, has been predestined by the goodness and pleasure of God and it causes us to be accepted in the Beloved. Beloved is a unique description of the Godhead that express the love that they have for each other that flows from their own unique state of being, that being love. Additionally this description of the Godhead conveys an acceptance and belonging into the same love that the Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit have for each other.
Revelation of Father God’s love cause our hearts to come alive. His acceptance develops confidence in our hearts to enjoy His presence even in the midst of our own weaknesses. Knowing God is deeply interested in you and wants to be close to you settles your heart. Knowing that we belong causes us to run to God instead of from God. His love brings healing and meets the longing of every human heart. There is great peace in knowing there is nothing we can do to earn His love or make Him love us more and great peace in knowing that there is nothing we can do to make Him love us less.
