Adopted by God, No Longer Strays
Daily Scripture
Galatians 4:4-7
4 But when the fulfillment of the time came, God sent his Son, born through a woman, and born under the Law. 5 This was so he could redeem those under the Law so that we could be adopted. 6 Because you are sons and daughters, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son or daughter, and if you are his child, then you are also an heir through God.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
Wayside Waifs came to Resurrection recently. They do a great job saving animals and urging people to adopt them. (You can learn more at www.waysidewaifs.org.) Their work reminds us that one image the apostle Paul used for God’s salvation was to say that God adopts us no matter how far away we have moved from our status as God’s sons and daughters. When we might otherwise be on a course leading to eternal darkness, God takes us into the safety of heaven’s family.
- Slavery was common in Paul’s day—it was the main backdrop for the word “redeem” in Galatians 4:5. Imagine how a slave would feel if the person who owned them said, “I’m adopting you. You’re now a full member of the family, not a slave.” Do you tend to live more as God’s “slave,” fearful and frustrated, or as God’s beloved daughter or son? How can you more fully accept your adoption, your complete “belonging” in God’s family?
- Paul, like Jesus (cf. Mark 14:36), said the Holy Spirit teaches us to address God with the Aramaic word abba. Abba was “a respectful but intimate way to address one’s father… it does not appear in Jewish prayers (unlike “Father”). This way of directly addressing God seems to have been unique to Jesus (until adopted by his followers; cf. Romans 8:15).” * Your adoption is not stiff or formal. It invites you to speak to God with the intimate family word Jesus used. How can that change your prayer life?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I want to live in ways that honor and please you. Help me to offer you my heart, my inner being, before I offer you anything else, and then guide me each day. Amen.
GPS Insights
Skylar Guarini
Skylar Guarini, who currently serves as a summer intern on the Adult Discipleship team at Resurrection, wrote today's Insights. She is an upcoming senior at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, where she studies creative writing. She also loves drawing and making spreadsheets!
My family is a stained glass window of former strays.
One of my favorite qualities about my mom is that she always notices and is drawn to the outcasts—or the “underdogs,” you could say. I’ve been fortunate to have resided with so many people who’ve had a diverse range of lived experiences. When I was a kid, I grew up with my mom’s best friend and her kid, and the various people in my home each instilled me with unique values that I wouldn’t have gotten in a more traditional upbringing.
Now, I live with my mom and stepdad, along with my mom’s long-time friend who has his own apartment in our basement. Some people may view this arrangement as odd, but when he needed a place to stay after his divorce, my mom didn’t hesitate to offer him one. Now he comes to our family get-togethers, and we eat dinner and play board games together all the time. I’m immensely grateful to have this unexpected source of friendship in my life, and it has made me more anticipatory to seek out nontraditional households in my future.
Just this last year, we also had another woman staying in our guest room. My mom had met her family on a trip to Israel a few years ago. When it wasn’t safe for her to go back to her country, she stayed with us for several months.
Most importantly to all the pet lovers out there, our dog was also a stray. Buster was actually from Wayside Waifs. He’s a short, squatty mutt who we always joke was “built wrong,” even though I know he was designed perfectly by the hand of God. He was picked up off the street just a few days before we adopted him. When we toured Wayside Waifs’s facility, he was this sad-looking dog with huge eyes, who would have fit perfectly in one of those sad dog commercials. We took a chance on him though, and now he’s the happiest boy there is!
As you go into your weekend, I encourage you to look for opportunities to open your heart to the “strays”—humans and animals alike. Maybe you’re not being called to offer your home to someone, but maybe you are. All I know is that I have been blessed by the opportunities I’ve been given to find kinship in unexpected places.
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Craig Keener, study note on Mark 14:36 in NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, eBook (p. 8750). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
