The Plumbline

The Father has loved us so much! This shows how much he loved us: We are called children of God. And we really are his children. But the people in the world don’t understand that we are God’s children, because they have not known him. Dear friends, now we are children of God. We have not yet been shown what we will be in the future. But we know that when Christ comes again, we will be like him. We will see him just as he is. He is pure, and everyone who has this hope in him keeps themselves pure like Christ. (I John 3:1-3) I have the rare privilege of being a child of God, adopted into his family, chosen to be his follower. How about you? Relationship with Jesus is the beginning of a life lived under different leadership - self no longer leading the way, but God's Spirit giving us direction. Some children have a birthright because they are 'born into' a family. Others are adopted into a family and know the love of the Father because he has chosen to give them a place within...

When a child is placed into a family as a "foster child", the arrangements are usually meant to be temporary.  Unless the foster family and the birth parents are amenable to adoption, that child will remain in the "foster system".  They really don't "belong" to any family - they are simply being cared for under the roof of a family who cares deeply about their well-being.  When a family moves toward adoption, the situation is a little different - the family is saying they want to make things "permanent" and "binding" in this relationship they have been "fostering".  Fostering implies the willingness to "bring up" and "care for" the child - there is a certain amount of nurturing which accompanies this relationship - almost like a mentoring relationship.  Adoption implies something entirely different - for in the action of adoption, the parent takes as their own the one who is from outside their family -...