aDOPTED

So, a few weeks back, my cat died.  He was a great cat, but also sometimes a jerk.  There was a whole span of time that he would wake me up at 5AM, demanding to be fed.  He did this by repeatedly smacking my face with his paw- no claws, just paw, but still (Secret Life of Pets 2, LOL).  I am NOT a morning person. 
 
But today, we are considering adopting again.  I miss the companionship.  And yes, I will probably talk out loud to the new cat.  Or cats… my husband wants two.  Anyway, the idea of adoption is something that I have contemplated recently.  Everybody wants the cute ones.  But what about the not so cute ones?  Past their prime, have a disease, gone through several foster homes… those guys.  The misfits and the ones looked over.  But changing pace here, isn’t that who Jesus picked?  The regular Joes, the angry hotheads, the too young to know better, and even the one who would betray him? 
 
Is. 53:2-3
“He grew up before Him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or splendor that we should look at Him, no appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like one people turned away from; He was despised, and we didn't value Him.”
 
This verse isn’t to make us feel poopy for being so mean to Jesus- it is to say that if we are His followers, we probably won’t be to awesome looking ourselves.  Or to at least suggest that surface is just that, and as we come to know Christ more intimately, we will examine ourselves more closely and see all our stains.  (Ps 139)
 
Today in our bible study the author was going over Gomer from Hosea, the beautiful story of redemption and repurchasing of the Lord and His people. (See, well, the book of Hosea)
 
You see, God know us.  And knows we will break his heart over and over again.  But yet he chose us.  And just as the verse in Isaiah isn’t to make us feel bad about how we treat Him, the reality is in the choosing of each of us.  How valued we are in the sight of God.  How wanted we are by him.  How included we are in his family.  How he wants us to truly know Him. But before you get up in arms, no.  This is not an excuse to be flip with God’s grace.  We are to humbly come to him knowing our sin as he shows it, and repent.
 
And the takeaway is not how dirty we are, but a call to return to our first love. 
 
Revelations 2:4-5
“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.  Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
 
So, consider- family.  Restored by the grace of God.  Welcomed by his great love.  As we should restore and give grace to others.  Stained, but he sees through it.  Loves with it and gives opportunity for improvement.  What are we going to do with that kind of love?  Waste it?  Or show that we appreciate it  by our actions and attitudes? I may have strayed, but he loves me just as much now as in the Beginning.   And that is an adoption worth thinking on.