A Picture Says A Thousand Adoption Words

Out of the many, many vacation pictures we took last week, this is my favorite one.

This picture is so beautiful to me for many reasons.  It might be because it features two of my most favorite boys.  It might be because my beach reading this year was the book, Orphanology.  Or it might be because the more I experience adoption, the more I am changed.

This picture screams to me:

redemption
sonship
trust
security
inheritance
love
loyalty
contentment
fulfillment
grace
promise
reward
blessing
freedom
abundance

The picture itself doesn't truly capture this father/son moment.  The tenderness that which Carson was caught with and the kisses and giggles that followed brought tears to my eyes.  I saw in those moments the beauty of adoption--on both sides:  the joy on Carson's face as he was tossed up and the smile on Tim's as he looked up.

"Adoption was an expression in our lives of the gospel in our hearts."  ~David Platt

What an incredible gift, a privilege, it is to experience on a very small, earthly level, the gospel lived out in our lives.  By trusting in Jesus Christ, we have, by no means of our own, been redeemed.  We have been lovingly tossed into the air by a heavenly Father who promises not to let us drop.  We have been graced to freely accept a love and inheritance that we don't deserve.  We have been scooped up and treasured.


"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."  ~ Ephesians 1:4-5

When I read verses like the one above, together with moments like the picture above, I see it so clearly.  It makes perfect, clear sense that those who have received such a redemptive love would extend it to others in the life-changing way it has been received.   "He has reached down His hand of mercy to us in the loneliness of our sin, and He has raised us up as members of His family.  Consequently, one of the clearest displays of the gospel in this life is when redeemed men and women extend a hand of mercy to children in need and bring them into their families", written by David Platt.  I couldn't say it any better--and this picture, captures it for me.

A redeemed father reaching up and out for his son, who was in such need of a love that he, through Jesus Christ, can bestow.