Yet to all who did receive him,
to those who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God
John 1:12
Bible Rank: 13
Adoption is a powerful gift. And I love hearing adoptive parents say with joy, "Out of all the children in the world, we chose you!"
God chooses you!
That was the whole purpose of Christ's journey (which John 1 is introducing in this passage). God loved you enough to send Jesus his Son. Jesus loved you enough to step off the throne and come down to this broken planet (which would physically work to batter and break him).
Why? To adopt you into the family!
That's it. That's the purpose of the journey. Adoption!
When most of us think about adoption, we think about babies. Infants don't really have a choice in the matter of adoption. They lay in whichever crib they're put.
So to understand the weight of this text, we need to think of adopting a sixteen-year-old from foster care. He has a will. He has a choice. "Would you like to come live with me? Would you like to be part of our family?"
Imagine if Mary Louise and I made this offer to ten teens in foster care: To all who received (and accepted) this invitation, we would give the right to become children of the Thomas family.
That's the purpose of Jesus' journey. He initiated the invitation. He came to the orphanage (earth). He offers the invitation. And to all who receive him, to those who believe in his name, he give the power to become part of the Christ family (the Christ-ians), the power, indeed, to become children of God.
In Christ's Love,
a guy with two last names
(one's from my father,
the other's from my Father)
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