Cosmic Significance

My little sister – who is now an attorney – used to do her best to convince me I was adopted. We should have known then what her career path would be, because the case she’d lay out was usually pretty good and more than once I left wondering if maybe she wasn’t right.

Of course, what she meant by “adopted” was something along these lines:

You’re not one of us.
You don’t belong here.
Your real family didn’t want you, either.

Do you ever feel like you don’t really belong? Do you feel a little like an outsider, like you’re different – and not in a good way? Maybe you put up the bulletproof front. You’re supremely confident when everyone is watching, but later that night, after the lights are off and you’re left alone and can’t hide from your thoughts… do you wonder whether you’re really all that significant in the grand scheme of things?

In his 200+ word sentence to open his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul couldn’t make it more clear:

If you are a child of God, you have infinite, cosmic significance because the God of the Universe has adopted you into His family. In fact, He began pursuing you – call it the “adoption process” – before you were even born. You belong – because the Heavenly Father has adopted you. And you’re not an outsider, a lesser member of the family – you’re an heir, with an inheritance and a future.

Are you an adopted son or daughter of the King? Then He’s taken you from the dark, hopeless and lonely orphanage that is this world and is making you into holy and blameless royalty. You get to move beyond the formality and protocol of coming before a king – instead, when you come before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, you can address Him as Abba, which is Aramaic for “Daddy.”

Just read through what Paul says about what God has done for you! You are more loved, more accepted and more blessed than you know.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,  even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love  he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,  which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight  making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

And if you’re not yet His child – and let’s be clear: none of us is naturally born into God’s family – then know this: the God of the Universe has been pursuing you from eternity past, and His desire is for you to become His child.

Christ died to save you, to adopt you – will you come be a part of His family with us?