An Adopted Child

I have learned over the years not to speak with certainty about the circumstances and choices of others.  What I might do if I wore their shoes and walked their way is not something I can know for sure without actually doing it.  So, I know that I cannot know exactly how it is that some children end up separated from their birth parents and adopted by others.  From the outside it would seem they were born into one family and through adoption born again into still another.  What I have also observed is that once adopted, it is as if they have been born again into the life of the adopted parents, including the inheritance they might leave upon their death.    

Peter's first letter lifts up this kind of relationship as he wrote, "...(God) has given us a new birth...into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith  for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."  (I Peter 1:3, 4-5)  The Apostle Paul also used this relationship to help the Roman Christians to understand what God had done for them.  "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God...you have received a spirit of adoption.  When we cry 'Abba! Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ..." (Romans 8:14-17)   

You and I know the circumstances of our life before we encountered Christ, heard the call to follow, and responded to God's act of grace with faith.  It marked a new beginning which is often described as a new birth since it was like being born into something so new we felt like a new person.  The plan of God has within it a gift of grace that enables us to know we have been brought into a new family, adopted into a new family, the family of God, and as a member of that family spiritual blessings come to us like a rich inheritance.