Adopted!

…the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

Romans 8:15 NIV

Bishop Wahome of Kenya’s African Inland Church smiled while describing his newly adopted son. He learned of fostering and adoption through his time visiting in Texas. His joy and love for his newly adopted son reflects the joy God experienced when He adopted me as an eight-year-old little girl.

The Apostle Paul often writes of our adoption as believers: …the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15).

An historical insight into Paul’s Greek word for adoption* (huiothesia) in another passage, Romans 8:23, brought me to a greater appreciation for God’s gift of adoption. In Rome, midwives left rejected or abandoned babies in the forest to die or, perhaps, for others to find. Those who found these rejected infants brought them to the agora, the central marketplace. Tragically, those adopted babies experienced lives of slavery or other forms of servitude.

When I imagine myself as one of these vulnerable infants exposed to the wiles of the world, my heart responds with amazement that God adopted me. He rescued me, took me as His child, and set my life on a path of grace. Because of that, I can cry, “Abba, Father.”

Father, I humble my heart in gratitude for Your adoption. Thank You for rescuing me from the marketplace of frightening paths for my life. Thank You for lovingly fathering me. May my life honor you as Your child. Through Your Son, Jesus, I pray, amen.  

Linda Lesniewski

*a presumed compound of two Greek words that connote weakness and sons and to lay down, lay aside; Blue Letter Bible, Interlinear Greek Translation.

*signifies the place and condition of a son or daughter given to one to whom it does not naturally belong. (from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words)