THIS is the Gospel

So I've been wanting to share this little snapshot here for a few days! Just haven't had the time to get it up here. It's orientation week at our school and since it's a mix between home school and private school, there are always many meetings with administrators, teachers and parents the week before we begin the new year. I'm smack dab in the middle of the chaos as an assistant in a classroom and mama to three kiddos who attend there!

But I just had to put this here. For posterity. For Gabe. For the telling of his story. Don't worry, the unblurred version will be printed in our book. :)

Have a looksy at this baby.

Oh, my.

THIS is THE piece of paper! The whole of our adoption process, to this point, boils down to this one sheet of paper from China. Isn't it lovely? Can you read what it says?...The authorities who make decisions about orphaned children in China agree that Gabe should be placed with Jase and I for adoption.

The implications of that are enormous. 

And I keep pondering it all in the light of our own salvation and adoption as believers. That the Godhead; the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit ordered and in effect said of us in eternity past..."We agree that they {us} should be placed in Christ for adoption." 

Amazing.

Utterly amazing.

"even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved."  {Ephesians 1:4-6 ESV emphasis mine.}

And as if that weren't enough, this gem of a piece of papers states that Jase and I should "travel in person to proceed..." Our Jesus did this very thing. Leaving His home. Forsaking comfort. Coming to us in our lostness and grafting us into Him.

Can you see it, Church?

THIS is the Gospel.

Glory to God. We have been adopted. We are being adopted. We will be adopted. {Romans 8:29-30} The golden chain of redemption is playing out before our very eyes as we prepare to bring Gabe home.

We will travel.

We will leave the comfort of our home and our children, albeit for 15 days.

We will bring Gabe out of poverty and a lack of inheritance and graft him in.

An orphan no more.

Rather, a son.

A son.

To God alone be the glory and praise for this beautiful picture of our redemption. The adoption of children is the best illustration I know of that depicts our salvation. But every illustration breaks down at some point. Even the good ones.

The difference here, is that none of the glory or the accolades or the atta boys that people give us for adopting our sons are merited. Sure, we've jumped through the hoops and we've complied with what has been required of us.

But the work is of the Lord.  

We desire no compliments nor do we enjoy them. If any attention is to come to Jase and I as a result of the way in which our family has been built, we hope that the spotlight would immediately be shown toward Jesus and He alone.

So in our spiritual adoption, the glory is the Lord's.

And in our sons' adoptions, the glory is the Lord's.

We are the blessed ones. The blessing and reward that our children give us, far outweighs what we offer to them as their parents. But again, the opposite is true of Christ. As His beloved, chosen ones, the blessing and the reward is having Him as Father. We know this full well.

So, I stand tonight, humbled and grateful that I am doubly blessed. My God has not only redeemed me from my own depravity, placed me in Christ and seated me as His child. But that same God is also redeeming Gabe from a life as one of the 143 million fatherless children in our world and placing him in us as our son.

To God be the glory, great things He has done!