Some weeks seem to bring a lot of bad news.
This week, I found myself hearing about the tragedy at the Big Church Festival, alongside some other awful things happening in Sheffield, right on our doorstep. It’s easy, when faced with difficult things, to find ourselves asking:
What is God like?
And then, in the middle of all that, came some wonderful news for our church family: two children have officially been adopted into their forever family.
We celebrated together and rightly so.
As we celebrated, I was struck by what a beautiful picture it was.
A picture of heaven.
The Bible uses the language of adoption to help us understand what God has done for us.
God is the Adopter
There is a mystery about becoming a Christian.
When I became a Christian nearly ten years ago, I certainly said words that suggested it was a choice to follow Jesus. But, looking back, it also felt as though God was choosing me. He had been drawing me towards Himself long before I realised what was happening.
When I look back over my life, before that moment in Sarah and Gord’s living room, I can see His hand in situations – even amongst the suffering. Even when I was lost, He was pursuing me.
And when we read the New Testament, we discover that this is more than just a feeling.
The Bible describes what God does for us in terms of adoption.
Paul writes that those who belong to Christ receive the Spirit who brings about our adoption as God’s children (Romans 8:15). Elsewhere, he says that God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:5).
This doesn’t mean that becoming a Christian is simply like being adopted by a human family. Human adoption and our relationship with God aren’t identical.
But adoption gives us a powerful picture of something fundamental about God:
God doesn’t just forgive us and leave us at a distance. He brings us into His family.
He chooses to call us His children.
The God who searches for the lost
This is why Jesus’ stories about lost things are so significant.
In Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of a woman who loses one of her ten silver coins:
“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbours and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”
— Luke 15:8–10, NLT
Jesus is telling a story to help us understand what God is like.
So what do we discover?
God actively seeks the lost.
He was seeking me before I knew Him.
He is seeking the people in our families who don’t yet know Him. He is seeking our friends, and our neighbours.
And the lost are precious to Him, even before they realise they are lost.
The parable of the lost coin sits alongside Jesus’ stories of the lost sheep and the lost son. A sheep can wander. A son can rebel. But a coin can’t do either of those things.
It simply lies there, lost.
And that’s part of what makes this picture so beautiful: God’s love isn’t dependent on our ability to find our way back to Him.
He searches.
The coin is valuable because it belongs to the woman. And coins bear an image on them. Even today, our coins carry the image of the King.
And we carry an image too.
We are made in the image of God.
Our value isn’t something we earn. It is something we have because we have been made by Him and bear His image.
We get to join in
Some interpretations of this parable see the woman as representing the church. If that’s the case, it gives us a challenge.
The Shepherd searches for the lost sheep. The Father runs towards the lost son. And perhaps here, we are invited to pick up the lamp and search for the lost coin.
God is already at work seeking people, and incredibly, He chooses to partner with us in that work.
I’m thankful for Linda, who was willing to partner with the Holy Spirit and help draw me nearer to God.
It’s a beautiful mystery that God chooses to work through ordinary people like me and you.
There is another interesting detail in the story: the coin is lost inside the house.
It reminds us that it is possible to be physically close to God’s people while becoming spiritually distant from God ourselves.
Reflect
Which one of these interpretations resonates with you the most at this time?
Whichever interpretation resonates with you, the message is the same:
God cares about the lost. God seeks the lost. And God celebrates when they are found.
Jesus shows us what God is like
We can trust this because Jesus shows us what God is like.
In John 14, Jesus is talking to His disciples about the Father. He says:
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.”
— John 14:1, NLT
Thomas, quite reasonably, admits that he doesn’t understand.
Then Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father.
Jesus’ response is extraordinary:
“Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!”
— John 14:9, NLT
In other words, if you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.
Jesus reveals the Father’s heart.
So when Jesus tells us stories about a God who searches for the lost, who welcomes people home and who celebrates when they are found, we can trust that this is what God is like.
At the end of the parable of the lost coin, the woman doesn’t quietly put the coin back in her purse and get on with her day.
She calls her friends and neighbours.
“Rejoice with me!”
There is celebration.
And that is exactly what we saw in our church family this week as we celebrated the homecoming of these children.
Their adoption is a beautiful reminder of what the Bible means when it talks about us being adopted into God’s family.
The analogy isn’t perfect – and it doesn’t need to be. There is something profound in the picture.
These children don’t have to continually prove that they belong.
They don’t have to earn their place in the family every morning.
They don’t have to be good enough to become their parents’ children.
They belong.
Of course, there will be arguments, tears, misunderstandings and difficult days. That’s part of being a family.
But none of those things change the fundamental truth:
They are still their parents’ children.
And this gives us a glimpse of something wonderful about God’s love.
When God adopts us into His family, He doesn’t bring us in on a temporary basis. Our identity isn’t dependent on having a perfect week, getting everything right or never making a mistake.
When we respond to God’s invitation, our place in His family isn’t something we have to continually earn. When we’re in, we’re in.
Nothing can separate us from His love
Romans 8 asks:
“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love?”
— Romans 8:35, NLT
Paul’s answer is emphatic: no.
He goes on to say that neither death nor life, angels nor demons, our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell—can separate us from the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus.
That’s good news.
Especially when the world around us feels frightening or uncertain.
Especially when we don’t understand what is happening.
Especially when we feel lost.
No matter what you’re going through, you can trust that this is what God is like.
And when we belong to Him, we can rest in the truth that we are His children.
Go Deeper
Use the words from the song “Build my Life” as a way to guide your prayers on the topic from today’s Midweek Musing:
‘And I will build my life upon Your love
It is a firm foundation
And I will put my trust in You alone
And I will not be shaken
And I will build my life upon Your love
It is a firm foundation
And I will put my trust in You alone
And I will not be shaken’
Listen to the full song here:
