Our sermon this Sunday morning worship sermon was on adoption. This is what I took home from this sermon. Sometimes, I am amazed at how confused I can sometimes get.
Galation 1:4-6 (NIV) For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons though Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
- We are adopted by God.
- God picked me out.
- This adoption has a price.
Wow, I was excited. God picked me. I want to be picked by God. I also know that God paid the price through the death of his Son.
But then the questions started to pop into my head.
Does God choose me or do I choose God? I think about this question all the time and can never come up with an answer. I sometimes think that I will never know. When I was baptized I confessed that Jesus was the Son of God. I was just a teenager at that time and it seemed that I was choosing God instead of him choosing me. The verse I quoted above seems to say that God chose me before the world was created. So did I really make a choice?
I thought about the adoption process. It is true the prospective parents do choose the child. I then began to wonder if the child has a choice. If the child is an infant I do not think so. I suppose if the child is older he/she can decide if they want to be adopted. I would think that the child would be so happy to be adopted that the child would not turn down this opportunity. Maybe the choice comes when the child decides to love the parents through obedience – by doing things that the parents want the child to do. If the child is disobedient, then maybe the child is rejecting the adoption?
It is true that adoption does have a high price. I looked it up on the internet and adoptions can cost around $25,000. That does not include all the cost of then raising that child. The price that God paid to adopt me was a high price too. The price that was paid was the sacrifice of his own Son on the cross. This is clear to me. I just wish the choosing part would become clear.
So this is what I think – I do know that the thought of God choosing me before I was born makes me feel loved by God. To think that at one time I thought that I chose God makes me presumptuous. Who am I to tell God anything. I am just the creature. He is the Creator of all things. And I suppose in a very small way I have also chosen God. The choice I make is to love God every day though obediance and to enjoy all the blessings and promises that he gives to me as his child.
Reflections 