Adopted By God

I had a great conversation with my dad recently. We had just had breakfast together, which is no small feat since we live about seven hours a part. Breakfast consisted of myself, Dad, Uncle Jerry, and two of dad's cousins who I know but haven't seen too much of during my life. In our phone conversation, Dad was telling me some of the LaMotte family history.

My dad's grandmother had her son (My dad's dad- and my grandfather) out of wedlock. To my understanding, no one is real sure of who my grandfather's biological father is other than a last name and a location. Eventually, Dad's grandmother married her husband (a LaMotte) and they began their life together. My grandfather (Dad's dad) began using the LaMotte name early on even though his biological father's last name was on his birth certificate. Granddad was in his late 20's/early 30's when he applied for disability for his failing eyesight and found out that legally he still had his biological father's last name even though he had been using the LaMotte last name for 30 years. So as a young adult, Granddad was adopted by my Great-Granddad LaMotte- making the name change official.  (My dad was already born and using the LaMotte name even though it wasn't "official")

This means that I have no real "LaMotte" genetics. Neither does my father, or my sister, or my two daughters. But because of the love of my great-grandfather for my great-grandmother- I have the last name of LaMotte- and no one can take that away from our family. (*Ironically, my great grandmother on my grandmother's side (Hovis') was also adopted, but she didn't find out until she was in her 80's!!!)

I am reminded of Romans 8:14-17 where we are reminded of our new identity through Jesus.

"For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.  The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.  And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.  Now if we are children, then we are heirs- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."

 When we receive the Spirit of God through through Jesus- we become adopted children of God. We are no longer slaves to sin. We are no longer unwanted.  We have gone from having no rights (slaves) to having the full rights and benefits of a child of God. Just as a biological child- we are heirs of God- brothers and sisters with Jesus to receive the fullness of God's love and blessings.

This is truly Good News! When we are adopted by God, one of God's children, our past is wiped clean.  We are given a new name. So that whenever we feel worthless or unloved- we know that we have serve a God who calls us His children. And we are given the right to call God our Abba, Father, and Daddy.
 

The Beauty of Grace

I have two amazing daughters.  Abbie will be five in June.  She is funny, caring, and very aware of other people's happiness. Chloe just turned one in December and is headstrong, adventurous, and loves music. (Abbie loves music too- which is good because we often have a variety of music playing.  Both girls favorite toys have been, at some point, those musical birthday cards.  The current one getting play features Wang Chung's "Everybody Have Fun Tonight.")  Both girls bring Andrea and I a tremendous amount of joy and love.

But they are not perfect.

Abbie is in pre-school this year, and because of Andrea's work schedule I have been the one to take the girls to daycare and preschool.  This is generally not a big deal.  But today, Abbie didn't want to listen when it was time to put her coat on.  In fact, she had four or five opportunities to get out of her chair to put her coat on.  So she was punished.  The consequences for not listening was losing her TV privileges.  (Don't read into this, we rarely have the TV on in our house- so when we do it is a treat and a real punishment to lost that right.)

As you can imagine, Abbie cried.  She groaned.  She whined.  She even screamed.  All the way to the car- and continued to cry for the first five minutes or so of our ride north to Dover.

I was nearly in tears.  I hate punishing our kids.  I hate it when they choose not to listen.  It tears me apart to see Abbie (in this case) crying and screaming.

And then I think: Isn't God like that with His children?  God has laid out the expectations for us.  Told us how to live and behave.  Yet time and time again, we choose not to listen.  We fall short of the standard of God's holiness.  We sin.  And there are consequences for our actions.  Sometimes those consequences are immediate.  Sometimes the consequences don't seem too severe.  Other times they feel overwhelming.

I believe that when I sin, when we sin, that God is moved to sadness- just as I felt sadness in punishing my daughter.  Why would God be moved to sadness?  Because God loves us so much.  Because God wants to give us a life abundant.  Because God has shown us the most excellent way to live through Jesus Christ.  But time and time again, we turn our backs on God.

Part way up to pre-school, I reached to the backseat of my car and held Abbie's hand.  She began to show me how see could now reach the ceiling of my car while sitting down (which is better than standing up while the car is moving).  When I dropped Abbie off at school she held my hand, gave me a kiss good bye and we both said, "I love you."

Again, tears nearly filling my eyes.  But this time because grace is such a beautiful thing.  Even as we turn our backs on God- God reached down to earth and gave us Jesus- the fullest displays of God's love.  It is through Jesus that God is continually saying to us, "I love you."

Grace is a beautiful thing.

Love is...

I've been reading Rob Bell's book Sex God this past week. I'm about half-way through it. There is a lot of talk in Christian-land on whether Rob Bell is the next Billy Graham or some sort of heretic. I, for one, really enjoy Rob's sermons and teachings...but like any Christian should, I strive to investigate what people say and write.

Regardless of that, I really like what Rob wrote on love and risk on pg. 98...

"Love is handing your heart to someone and taking the risk that they will
hand it back because they don't want it."

"Love is giving away power. When we love, we give the other person
the power in the relationship."

"Love is a giving away. When we love, we put ourselves out there, we
expose ourselve, we allw oursleves to be vulnerable."

"Love is giving up control. It's surrendering the desire to control the
other person."

(for whatever reason, I can't get this justified left...but onward I go)

This is what God did with us. He loved us enough to give us free will. He loved us enough to give us his Son. He loved enough to risk that we might reject His love. When we understand God's love for us, it compels us to look at the love we have for those around us. It moves us to a selfless love, an empowering love.

In the New Year, my prayer is to ask God to help me take risk and to love as He loves me.