Seven years old Christene is an orphan. Although she seems the same as the other children at the orphanage, there is something different about her. She has been adopted, she is playing with the same toys as the other children, eating the same food as the other children, but she is different because she knows that soon she is going to have a new home with her own room.
She has already met her new family, they came to visit and they gave her photos of her new room, a teddy bear, cookies and other snacks. She shared the snacks and cookies, allowed the other orphans to play with her teddy bear, but the photos she keeps. They remind her of her home-to-be, and she proudly shows them to everyone. She will be there in a month or two. She knows the day is coming. Every time the gate opens her heart jumps. Any day now her Father will be here to fetch her, he promised he will be back to carry her home. Until then she is living with a heart headed home.
Shouldn’t we also live that way, with our heart headed home. Our Father has paid us a visit, He has claimed us, we have been adopted. We are no longer fearful slaves, but God’s very own children adopted into His family. God searched you and choose you in advance, He filed the adoption papers and He is getting your room ready for your arrival. Just like Christene, you cannot pay your own way out of the orphanage. Jesus covered the adoption fees, we just have to accept the adoption. The moment you accept the adoption you go from orphan to heir.
We are adopted but not yet transported. We have a new family, but we are not yet in our heavenly house. God claimed us, but He is yet to come for us. Between what is and what will be, what do we do in the mean time? And can this time be mean. Time filled with chemotherapy, drunk drivers, out of control wildfires and back stabbers. Just as Christene has her photos and the visit of her new parents, we have received the Holy Spirit as our foretaste of future glory.
We can experience this foretaste in the smile of a spouse, the giggle of a two year old, the serenity of the beach, or stepping back from a wet canvas after completing a painting. Moments where there are no wars and no tax returns. Moments where it is just you and God and a sense that all is right. Don’t regard these moments as good luck, recognize them as moments that attune you to heaven.
Every second of our life brings us closer to our completed adoption. Christene’s home-to-be dominates her thoughts. Letting our thoughts be filled with our heavenly home will carry us through the mean times, and it will also cause the gifts of this life to stir up homeward longings. Every homeless day on earth carries us closer to the day that our Father will come for us. When last have you shown your photos to someone? When last have you told somebody that you have been adopted and you are going home?