Chosen

In the weeks and months before my two biggest life events - marriage and motherhood - I prayed that God would use these life-changers to teach me more about Him and His character.  In marriage, He has given me an amazingly loving, generous, sacrificial husband who is doing his best to follow Jesus' example.  Because I know Herb is seeking God's will for our family, I know I can trust his leadership, the way the church clings to Jesus.  As a mother, God is showing me that the unconditional love I have for Levi doesn't even compare to the unconditional love God has for me.  God is teaching me that love is the foundation for discipline.

One learning opportunity I never previously considered, though probably obvious to everyone else, was the testimony that our adoption story would give as a real life example of God's adoption of us.  I know I've touched on it before; it really hit home the day the Levi's birth certificate arrived in the mail.  Now as I'm reading through Ephesians as part of the Good Morning Girls Bible study, Levi's adoption and my spiritual adoption are really on my mind again!

Ephesians 1:3-6

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

(Underlining added by me.)

It makes me think about how we chose to adopt before Levi was even conceived.  When Levi was created, God knew he would be our son.  It reminds me that in the same way Levi's name has been changed (even to the extent of his birth certificate and the fact that as far as legality is concerned, the person under his former name has never existed), my life before Jesus is gone too - I am a new creation!

I can see His hands so clearly orchestrating the construction of our family - how can I do anything else but trust Him with every other detail of my life?  And I'm so thankful that God has taken the time to give me real life, living, breathing, loving examples, in Herb and Levi, of His incredible love for me.