Adoption

An excerpt from David Platt's sermon on Galatians 3:26-4:7

(Pastor David and his wife Heather adopted Caleb a couple years ago.)

Caleb is two and a half years old now, and his favorite question – you know what his favorite question is. A two and a half year old, what's his favorite question? Why – all the time, why, why, why. We do this little thing where I'll look at him and I'll point at him and I'll be like, "I love Caleb." 

And he'll start laughing and he'll point back at me and be, like, "I love Daddy." And we'll kind of go back and forth and we'll just get louder and louder and louder and just start laughing. It's just, you know, one of those things. And the other day this week we were doing that – "I love Caleb," "I love Daddy," and then we got laughing and he kind of caught his breath from laughing and he said, "You love me, Daddy?" 

And I said, "Yeah, I love you, buddy." And he looked back at me and he said, "Why?" And I said, "Because you're my son." He said, "Why?" And I paused. "You love me, Daddy? Why?" "Because you're my son." "Why?" Why is he my son? Why, out of all the children in the world, is this little guy that I'm playing with my son? And I start tearing up, getting emotional. Caleb doesn’t know what's going on. That's the last time he'll ask me why. 

He was just playing with his daddy, now his daddy's weeping, and I just look at him and I said, "Because we came to get you, buddy, and we wanted you in our family." Can I remind you that the God of the universe looks upon your life, church – not the person beside you, in front of you, or behind you. He looks upon your life and says, "I love you." "Why, God? Why would you love me?" "Because you're my son." "Why, God? Why am I your son?" "Because I came to get you. I came for you, and I wanted you in my family." 

This is good. It's good to be a son in the family of God. This is adoption.

Thank you, God, for adopting me as your child. for loving me. for saving me. I'm so sorry for the times I forget you or reject you or run away from you. These happen so so often. Thank you for chasing after me again and again, and saving me from myself. Thank you for salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Praise be to you, God, the Lord of heaven and earth, my heavenly father.