Jesus was adopted too!

For several weeks, Christy and I have been kicking around various fundraising ideas for our adoption.  We decided that one of the things that we could easily do was a puzzle fundraiser (see the previous post for details).  We wanted to find a puzzle that had some sort of adoption or Asian theme as it would ultimately be framed and have a permanent place hanging in our home.  I had searched the web but just had not found the "right" puzzle.  Saturday, Christy called me at work and said that she had found "the" puzzle.  It simply says, "Jesus was adopted, too."  That statement stopped me in my tracks.  I've spent a lot of time during the last six months thinking about adoption from both a world view and as a bibilical doctrine.  I had never even given any thought to the fact that Jesus was adopted, too.  Have you?  Joseph was Jesus' earthly father---yet they did not have a biological connection.  Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18) and born of a virgin.  According to the law and customs of the times, Joseph could have ended his relationship with Mary after learning that she was with child.

Dr. Russell Moore wrote on this subject:

"With full legal rights to abandon Mary and her unborn child — perhaps to a fate worse than death — Joseph obeyed the Father in becoming a father. When Herod — the Roman Empire’s precursor to “Planned Parenthood” — sought the destruction of the infants, Joseph shielded this child from the murderous rage of infanticide (Matthew 2:13-18). In his obedience, Joseph demonstrated what his other son would later call “pure and undefiled” religion, the kind that cares for the fatherless and the abandoned (James 1:27)."

I am so thankful that Joseph chose to follow God's plan.  As believers, all of us can praise God-our Heavenly Father-for the incredible gift of his Eternal Son and the amazing grace that allows us to be adopted as His children.

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"  So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, than an heir through God." -Galations 4:4-7 ESV