Adoption and Christmas!

There is soooooo much adoption in Christmas! I read in my new archeological Bible that Caesar Augustus was adopted by his uncle and of course Jesus had Joseph as his adopted Father and it gives us a great picture of how our heavenly Father wants to adopt us into His Forever Family. Brad delivered a gospel presentation through our adoption experience at our Church's Christmas program for 4 shows and Asher made a guest appearance. I was going to try to describe what he said, but I thought I'd just copy it for you to see. God worked in great ways. It definitely touched hearts and gave people a new perspective on their relationship with God. We were just a vessel to communicate the best message of all.They sang "There are no Orphans of God" song right before he went on. Here is what he said,"My name is Brad and just five months ago today, my wife Chris and I were in the midst of an incredible journey to Africa, to the country of Ethiopia, to adopt a 7-month-old baby boy. Up until that day, we had only a few pictures of him and his sweet little face and we were dying to meet him and welcome him into our family. They called him Mamush, which means “little boy” because they didn’t even know his name. So as you can imagine, we knew very little about him or the circumstances that had left him as an orphan. And it was such a mystery for us as his new parents to picture what his early days must have been like or what sights his little brown eyes had seen. But what we could imagine was life with him in our own home and the smothering love he was about to receive not only from us but from his brother and sisters back in Cincinnati. We had an incredible first meeting in a hotel lobby in Addis Ababa that we’ll never forget and then a joyfully tearful airport reunion as a family of 6 that is one of the highlights of my life. We named him Asher and I would love for you meet him tonight.(Chris brings Asher out for a brief introduction.) Asher means “happy and blessed” which is surely true of his life but actually of ours as well because of the joy that he has brought to our family. I am still a rookie in many ways when it comes to this experience of adoption, but I know enough already to know what an amazing picture it is of God’s love for us. Asher is too young to know how alone he was. He doesn’t know how desperately he needed parents to love him and care for him, to cheer for him, and laugh with him, and protect him, and pray for him. He doesn’t realize how much he needed someone to know him and call him by name. Someday though he will know. But I’m not too young to know how alone I was. You may even feel that way tonight or if not, I bet you can remember too. Spiritually speaking, I was an orphan. And in reality, I was far more lost than Asher. I needed love and protection. I needed someone to cheer for me and delight in me and care for me. I needed someone to know my name. I needed someone to know everything about me - and love me anyway. I needed a Dad. And while Chris and I knew almost nothing about Asher, before we held him for the first time, Our Heavenly Father knows each of us intimately, because he created us. He knows what we need - and what we need is Dad. What we need is family. He has wired us for relationship with Him and each other and He has offered us the chance to become children of God. He is all about big families! As I think about this Christmas, and the first Christmas, I am reminded of the name Emmanuel, which means “God With Us.” I think that is just incredibly profound. God didn’t want us to be alone and he didn’t want us to be orphans without a Father. When we traveled across the World to be with Asher it felt like a trip that took forever. But God traveled even further. He traveled through space and time to be with us – to be God With Us – to welcome us into the family. Now that is the Hope of Christmas. And that’s my Hope for you this Christmas. “Do not be afraid; for behold I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people . . . " Emmanuel, God is With Us and we don’t have to be alone! Merry Christmas!" Every time he practiced it with me I cried. So this Christmas and every one after will be seen through humble and grateful eyes. Thankful that I'm an adopted child of God and my Christmas wish is that all who reads this would be also. Our kids did great as they saw 2 of 4 performances and attended the dress rehearsal. We had lots of late nights and this week we are catching up on rest and getting geared up to celebrate Caleb's 8th birthday on Saturday, Dec. 16th.