Ephesians 1:3-12 (NASB)

3 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, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.

Family adoption is a legal process that takes someone who is not a blood relative and makes them family, just as if they were your blood relative from the very beginning. And that process is what happens when we are adopted by God and change from being one of His creation to one of His children. As in the family adoption, it is initiated by the parents. Our Father in heaven, knew before the foundation of the world that we would be one of His own. When you think about it, that is not only amazing, but actually what you would expect from a Holy, Sovereign God.

God gave me a life experience to know what it is like to adopt children. The process took two young boys that were not related to me and changed their legal status as if they were born of my blood. Their birth certificates are forever changed and I am their father. But the legal process is just the initial step. They then became my family, forever loved as my sons.

God has done the same for us who are His. Forever changed, forever loved, forever forgiven, just like the first born Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Father, thank You for the inheritance of eternal life through the sacrifice of Your Son. Thank You for my adoption into Your family. Thank You for the forgiveness of sin. Thank You for loving me when I was unlovable. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Always praying for the glory of God,