Adoption

It was a bright and beautiful Sunday morning when Brinkie, the last and only female cat of Grandma’s second set of kittens, came for her meal.

She was now two years old and had given birth to her first set of kittens in the hills. After she returned to her babies, I heard loud noises, yowling, meowing, and actual screaming and clashing between two cats. Sometime later, I noticed that Brinkie was going back and forth, meowing, and seemed very frightened, sad, desperate, and helpless. So my husband and I went into the hills in search of her kittens. We cried, “Meow! Meow! Meow!” but without any success. After losing all her kittens, Brinkie came home and adopted her mother’s and sister’s kittens that were already weaned.

They accepted her, and she lovingly and tenderly bathed and fed those big kittens as if they were her very own. Have we been adopted into the family of God? There are some steps to follow, but first, let us note Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 9:6) and also listen to what the apostle John said about the Servant King and Messiah who would come to live on this earth as a babe, suffer, and then die on a cruel cross to pay the ransom for our adoption from sin. John the Baptist preached in the wilderness about repentance and baptism. By baptizing Jesus, he gave us an example regarding our own adoption. Nicodemus heard John the Baptist’s message and read the Scriptures and then went to Jesus by night to ask how he could get adopted. Jesus told him that he had to be “born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5, NKJV). Today we also may be asking, “How can I be adopted?” To obtain the benefits of adoption, we need to acknowledge God as the Creator and Sustainer of the world, believe and have faith in Jesus, our Redeemer, and be washed in His blood. The first step is repentance (Acts 3:19), then confession (Proverbs 28:13), followed by consecration (Jeremiah 29:13).

Then, we ask God to help us grow in faith through the power of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:16). As it was with Brinkie and her three sets of adopted kittens, so it is with God’s people. Some of us may have been adopted into church fellowship more than once. Let us not give up. Our heavenly Father is still waiting to welcome us home into His everlasting kingdom.

Bula Rose Haughton Thompson