Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Lent Day 7: Illegitimate adoption

News headlines: "Argentine stolen at birth, now 32, learns identity." Apparently Alejandro was really Francisco... but was stolen from his mom at birth. He never really fit into his adopted family, a violent father, terrified mother, and several siblings who were nothing like him. He became a juggler in Europe, traveling to escape his past.

Then he returned to Argentina and found his true father, his birth father. When he found his dad, he heard that his father had searched for him all his life. It's a prodigal son story with a twist. Just like our own story of faith.

We know we don't fit into the world - it is filled with discomfort and violence, and opposes everything we aspire to be. We know we are born to love, extend kindness, live in forgiveness, and experience peace. Only when we return to our true Father do we find ourselves. Our true name is not "Small" or "Rejected one," but "Beloved in the Son." Our heritage includes companionship with our true Brother, Christ, who paid for our journey back to the Father. We can only respond to divine love by saying, "Teach me your ways, O God. Lead me in your truths." In this way, we find our heart's true home and join the Family we crave from spiritual infancy.

"Thank you God, for never ceasing to search for us until we find ourselves drawn back to you. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name." Amen.

Read more:
*Sing to God, sing praise to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds—his name is the LORD—and rejoice before him. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. Psalm 68:4-5 NIV

*Therefore, since we have been justified throughfaith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2 NIV

*How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. 1 John 3:1-3 NIV

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