God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So, we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. (New Living Translation)

Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son. (The Message)

Through faith in Jesus Christ, believers are adopted as God’s children. As John 1:11-13 says in the NIV translation, He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” 

According to a Reader’s Digest article, there are over 100,000 children in the foster care system in the USA. About 20,000—mostly older children and those with special needs—will never be adopted. They are considered unadoptable, which is undoubtedly something very sad. People who want to adopt a child must love him/her in advance and be persistent and patient. Yes, adoption is essentially an act of love.

In Ephesians, the apostle Paul says that God “decided in advance to adopt us into his own family through Jesus Christ” and that “it gave him great pleasure.” God waited many centuries to carry out this act of love. The heavenly hosts remained expectant of what was going to happen, and “when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship” (Galatians 4:4-5, NIV), and “what pleasure he took in planning this!” (Eph. 1:5, The Message). 

God adopted the unadoptable—you and me. He did not care for our defects and disabilities. He just wanted to make us members of His family, to be our Father again, to make us His beloved children again. John was moved as he reflected on this truth:

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:1-2, NIV)

Sin separates us from God and from fellowship with Him. As sinners we go after “the far country” like the prodigal son in Luke 15, and there we remain alone and humiliated, mistreated and hopeless until we come to our senses and repent and confess our guilt and decide to go back. God welcomes the sinner who repents, and God celebrates his return and lets him sit at His table and have communion with Him. 

In the midst of the identity crisis that afflicts and disconcerts many today, it is worth remembering that believers in Christ are adopted children of God. Let us the Spirit remind us of this, as Paul says in Romans 8:15-16 (NIV): 

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. 

As a good Father, God will take care of us and our needs. Besides, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32, NIV)

So, let us “praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son” (Eph. 1:6, NLT).