adopted

This last week or two was quite a spiritual journey for me! I can't imagine what it was like for my dear friend who was actually in the middle of it.  It was such a hard but awesome journey for me to experience God in a different way as I prayed more deeply than ever before. I have never felt emotionally exhausted after praying and it gave me a small glimmer into what gethsemane was like for Jesus. I can't remember i time being so involved (mind, body, heart, soul, emotions) in prayer and petitioning God, begging God, screaming at God, crying to God for Him to hear and change a situation.  What am amazing illustration God gave me this week watching this unfold. What an example about fighting for the redemption of his child and longing to adopt us into his family just as this couple has fought for an opportunity to bring this child into their family to buy her at a high price (not just financially) and to journey with her because she is worth adopting into an amazing family far greater than she was given or could have chosen on her own. What a beautiful redemption story. I am so so thankful for a God who longs to adopt us, who longs for us to choose Him back, who longs for the day when we are finally his and then finally face to face with Him. Not because he lacks anything without us, but just because he is Love.  What a picture of what God did at the cross too. Not only does he love his children beyond any love we could experience in the smallest fraction, but his prize, his son, he watched tortured for a people who didn't love him, but He longed to adopt. That is a high price to pay for our adoption.  So through this process, i have really grasped my own adoption into Christ and as well as the ransom paid for me, the earnest love he pours over me, and the urgency to tell others about the amazing family that awaits them. I need to live in that reality a little bit deeper so I can really grasp the pure blessing God has given me in just giving me himself. Blessings or not, He has already given me all i need in Him. I need nothing else than the Father who has fought for me, waited for me, pursued me, and bought me at the highest price, then rejoiced when I chose Him back. I want nothing more than Him, and I may need him to remind me of that, but what a beautiful fulfillment of scripture in 1Pet 3 that glory WILL be revealed in suffering. And perseverance produces growth and revelation.