Adoption

The River Chapel was overflowing with volunteers, Beautiful Gate staff, government workers, house moms, and two families holding two healthy Basotho boys clinging to their new parents for an adoption ceremony. Even though it was a chilly morning in Lesotho Africa, the room heated up quickly as the festive celebration began. The housemothers, those who helped raised these two young boys, began the morning with songs, prayers, and of course dancing. The joy was contagious in the room, as the Beautiful Gate Staff knew these boys were going to godly homes where they would be nurtured and loved for the rest of their lives.

At one point house mom Ma Judith, who helped raise one of the adoptive boys from birth, shared about the blessing he had been to the Beautiful Gate family. It was a bitter sweet moment as she reached out her arms to hug the young child but he held tight to his new parents who he had just spent the week with. How hard it was for Judith to let go but as she turned around she led the ladies in another dance around the room rejoicing that the boy has already adapted to his loving home.

As I write this blog 10 days removed from the adoption ceremony I can still replay the scene in my mind in vivid detail. It truly was a spiritual experience for many reasons. First of all it was a God honoring day for the Beautiful Gate staff whom daily sacrifice to take care of (Matthew 25:40). It was God the Father saying, “well done good and faithful servants.” You could almost hear Heaven cheering in the chapel that day.

Secondly it was a day where a river of love flooded the room with powerful emotions of the Father’s love. As I leaned against a sidewall I watched tears flowing generously from volunteers, staff, and the families that were adopting, as well as several from our own team as we sat as bystanders. This is what happens when “true religion” takes place and God’s Kingdom breaks forth with joy that goes beyond words.

As both parents took pen in hand and signed the official papers making the long and costly adoption final, I pondered what my Abba Father did for me. How as an orphan child separated by my sin, shame, and a sickening spiritual death, he reached out to me through His only Son Jesus and purchased my life through His perfect, costly blood. The words from a song kept going through my mind during this ceremony, “I’m no longer a slave to sin but I am a child of God.”

That Friday morning in Lesotho Africa my soul was once again awakened to my own costly adoption and with great joy I joined in the singing and dancing giving praise to a good, good Father for His perfect love given to me His son.

“In love He predestined us to be adopted as his son through Jesus Christ …to the praise of His glorious grace,” Eph. 1:4-5.