What does joy look like? I have seen a lot of joy in my home recently in the face of a 5-year-old boy. Almost a month ago, I was in southern India meeting our adopted son. These first weeks of getting to know one another have gone so much better than I expected. Manu loves having a family. He lavishes us with hugs and kisses throughout the day. He jumps up and down with excitement at the smallest things. And today, well, today was a big day. We went to get family pictures taken and he was in the pictures! He belongs in the pictures because he is a part of our family now! This was a big deal to him. 

He was so ready to have a family, to be tucked in to bed at night and sung to, to sit down at a dining room table and eat together, to have the attention of his siblings, to be tickled often, to have someone care when he falls and gets hurt, to have someone who responds when he calls “mom”. At times when he sees me, he will throw out his arms wide, shriek with delight and run towards me for a big hug. His heart is so full of joy.

He isn’t the only one who has been adopted. When we accepted Jesus as our Savior, we were adopted by God. We were brought into His family with the privileges and position of being a child of God. The truth of this reality is meaning more to me as I watch our son. We’ve heard it many times so the excitement has worn off, but the shocking truth of this amazing news remains the same. We are saved. We belong to Him. He is our God, our Father, our closest companion. This means that we have a never-ending reason for joy. Whatever circumstance we are in, we can have joy because at our foundation, we have been reunited with Him. We are loved more than we could ever know. I don’t always feel the reality of this and especially not like my adopted son is feeling the joy of being in his family; but today I want to take a moment to be still and remind my soul of the joy in this truth… 

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will — to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.” Ephesians 1:3-6