Renamed

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.

1 Peter 1:3-4 NIV

As I ate lunch with a fairly new friend, I shared my adoption story with her. Conceived in an act of adultery, my biological mother chose adoption. After seven months in a foster home, a young couple became my adoptive parents.

Recently, I discovered the name of my biological mother. I found out that she named me at birth. She gave me a first and middle name while she even shared her last name with me.

My adoptive parents renamed me. My middle name means “reborn” as in a way I was reborn into their family. They too shared their last name with me.

Earlier in life they had professed Christ as their Savior and they attended church regularly. Because of that, I also, had the opportunity to learn about God wanted to include me in his family.

Upon hearing my story, my friend made a comment about how God had redeemed my situation at birth. He had a hand on my life the whole time.

Although I had thought about it before, I had never really let my birth story, my earthly adoption story, and my spiritual adoption story sink in. As a child of both biological and adoptive parents I had no control, but God did. On the other hand, when it came to entrance into his family, he made sure I had the chance to get the invitation and the choice to ask him into my heart. He afforded me the right to call myself his child and to obtain inheritance privileges. When I accepted him, he had a new name for me as well – my beloved daughter.

Father God, you knew me by my earthly names and now you know me as your child. Thank you for your inheritance which never fades away.

Susan Partida