Orphans and Easter

Well, Spring has sprung and the reason I know this is that the Lion of March has been roaring outside my windows these last few nights with magnificently powerful gusts of winds "like the sounds of rushing waters," as Revelation would apocalyptically say.

Tomorrow is Easter, and I was sooo hoping to have been in China. Would seem utterly appropriate - new life, new birth, new hope...

It's OK though. This year Easter has taken on a whole new dimension for me. It's still Easter but I have a new spin on it, because in a very big way I am starting to understand just how big adoption is in the scheme of Easter. Sounds strange at first, I know. But adoption is the motivation behind what Easter is all about. It's the impetus, the driving force of the message of Easter. Why?

Because adoption is the vessel of grace and Easter is the path to it. Adoption is the epitome of God's expression of love to us. It is the way He chose to show us how we are folded and enveloped into a family -- and a kingly family at that.

Adoption is bigger than the universe. It was conceived and put into action by God before the foundation of the world as the means of demonstrating His massive love for -- and grace to -- the world. It is what God destined us to, before the universe ever was. It is the quintessential act expressing: "I choose you. You don't even know Me yet, but I love you..."

"He chose us in Him, before the creation of the world...In love He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of His glorious grace...In Him we were also chosen..." (Eph 1:4) Adoption is the tangible expression of God's grace and love, Him seeking us before we ever saught Him. It's why He came; it's one of the best new perspectives on Easter. And here I am only just coming around to this awesomeness. Easter is redemption and hope and us finally having the option of adoption out of a life of spiritual poverty.

In the same way Jason and I pray that Jesse Yong's heart will be soft and open to receiving our love, I realize I also need my heart opened to what God's trying to show me. "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know that hope to which He has called you....and His incomparably great power, like the working of His mighty strength which He exerted in Christ when He raised him from the dead." (Eph 1:18) See what I mean about it being so tightly wound with the essence of Easter?!?!

From the doors of an orphanage
To the house of the King,
No longer an outcast
A new song I sing.
From rags unto riches
From the weak to the strong,
I'm not worthy to be here,
But praise God I belong!

~HAPPY EASTER!!!~