It was around 8:00 on a Sunday night, my sister’s bedtime was at least a half hour more than mine and as I was brushing my teeth she entered into the bathroom… I was 6. We had been fighting all night, various scuttles; a couple spanks and perhaps some Tabasco sauce. As she entered the bathroom, she had a plan. My sister might have seen her next move on a TV show, or perhaps Jennifer Bracken gave her the heads up on how she pulled this one off on her brother. Nevertheless my sister was one who would frequently get my goat psychologically, and was lying in wait for me to be alone and unprepared for what information she was about to disclose.
I knew something was coming so I readied my toothbrush to defend myself because she was always grossed out by a touch on the bare skin with used toothbrush. She carefully approached, to at least be out of toothbrush range, and calmly said. “Mom and dad don’t know that I know this, but heard them talking and I thought that you should know that they were talking about you.”
Responding with a swipe of my toothbrush I said “shut up”
Erin’s dramatic eyes and next words soon let me relax my grip on the toothbrush. She said “it’s totally intense… you probably wouldn’t be able to handle it anyway.” She began to leave the bathroom. Intrigued, I said “shut up, I totally can.”
At which she knew she had me poised for the turmoil she was about to unleash. “I heard them talking and it turns out… your adopted.”
Immediately my tooth brush bristled as I began chasing her with resolve to make her pay for those words. “Shut up, you lie!” As she dodged the toothbrush with alacrity she would continue to dispel my sloughing off of the illegitimacy of my true birthright. My mom, done with our fighting sent both of us to bed at the same time. As she was kissing me goodnight I thought to myself “Is it true… am I adopted…” I tossed and turned all night thinking about how I was going to get a hold of my real parents and how “It’s a Hard Knock Life.”
And sure enough it was for my sister when my parents found out what she did. She totally got the tomorrow spanked out of her. But within those two weeks of keeping that information to myself, I wondered who my real parents were and why they had abandoned me. I looked out the window and sang about my possible parents “maybe he’s rich, maybe she’s poor, maybe she’s walking 82ed as a …” you know just speculating as you would. And there were a couple thoughts that were eating me up inside. If I’m adopted I really don’t belong to my parents. I don’t have that birthright card to play. There is only choice and commitment that separates me from them. If they were to choose not to be my parents anymore I wouldn’t be able to contest it by saying… “But I’m your son.”
So I’ve decided on this rainy Sunday to decide to put you guys through all this pain as well. “How?” do you say? By telling you all that you are adopted.
Now I know that some of you might be, and to you this won’t come as a large issue. You’ve already dealt with the initial shock of it all and you’re pretty much over it except for some minor issues that require two or three weeks of counseling. But for the rest of you, my guess is you’re going through the denial phase. “I’m not adopted” you say to yourself.
And a lot of people when they hear the statement “child of God” say, “yeah I’m a child of God, you’re a child of God” what’s the big deal God loves us as his children. Jesus said “let the little ones come to me.” I’m a little child of God. Now in this statement it is semantically true. But if you consider yourself a follower of Jesus I’m here to tell you that you are an “adopted” child of God. You don’t pop out of the womb and automatically get deemed a Child of God. No every person pop’s out of the womb with a red wig on and a dog named Sandy.
So why is this? Let’s take a look at the actual parent… who’s your spiritual daddy? Well it’s God. Now I know here at the bridge the actual fear of God is somewhat relaxed because of our own sense of humor and possible abuse that the church in general has relegated. But in all reality God is holy… Not as in the Swiss cheese. But as in completely set apart and unto himself. i.e. God is separated from all other beings by his infinite perfections, by his being, wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and truth. Now… let’s look at you, are you holy.
I think now were entering the depression stage. Where you’re starting to put 2 and 2 together and you’re starting to realize that you might not be a spirological offspring of God. You might be thinking to yourself, I thought I had this connection with God. I thought we were like this, I thought I was his child. And now there’s kind of a sense of illegitimacy with it. You now are seeing that your traits are not similar. Your red hair doesn’t have anything to do with traits that God has. You have no connection with God besides choice.
Now let’s bring something into the mix. Lets bring in Jesus. Now all of the sudden it makes all of the sense in the world when you hear “only begotten son.” Why? Because Jesus is one of a kind. According to the bible Jesus while he was on earth was holy… set apart, separated from all other beings by his infinite perfections, by his being, wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and truth. Sound familiar? Hmm. Plus you have the whole dove coming down situation at the baptism and the whole transfiguration thing.
OK I don’t know about you but I believe we’ve entered the anger stage. Maybe you can be a little pissed that you don’t have the traits of God. That you’re not going around coming up with clever banter to put to rest those religious elite, or angry that you have to go about your life buying your food rather than simply borrowing a lunch and feeding those around you. But at least you don’t have to die on a cross.
This really is my point. Since most Christians ascribe to monotheism. The spirological son of God is God Himself. And when you look at what Jesus did on the Cross… the son of god offers his own death for the non-holiness of those that would be then adopted children of god. We receive our papers through faith in Christ. In response to the grace that God put forth through Jesus, we are restored to that communion with God . We are a part of the family.
Now maybe your there at the acceptance phase. As I say to you as your brother … “you’re adopted” maybe you can see now that fong ago before the foundations of the universe were put in place, God had a plan. It was to have kids. Before the foundations of the world were set up he knew you, saw you, and wanted you as his kid. As a result God sent himself (Jesus) as the on earth brother representation and embodiment of God and Man to take our place so that we can be with him.
The author of Ephesians writes:
I believe that if we just haphazardly use the term Child of God without really understanding the love that God put into making us into that we’re missing the entire bag. It’s like watching Annie without the singing and dancing. The magic is gone.
Incidentally, we have been speaking on the core values of the bridge. You’ve heard about worship, equality for women, and this week I was sapposed to talk on the core value of ours “offering tools for true life healing based on God’s love and acceptance.”
So let me end with this idea. When we realize what God has done in his Son Jesus, we can begin to see how much God loves us and has gone out of his way to accept us. By us making this mental ascent, we begin the road that the holy spirit takes us in making us more like Jesus and thus having true life healing.
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