They Picked Me

I recently read a book in which a young woman takes in her 10-year-old brother, Simon,  who was abandoned by their mother. She loves Simon fiercely. This young woman also has a son, and they all live with her grandmother, so their family is rather unorthodox. When circumstances threaten to take her away from their hometown, Simon becomes emotionally withdrawn, brooding, sad. The young mom realizes eventually that he thinks she will leave him with their grandmother because, of course, he’s not really her son. They all just pretend he is.

That’s when she realizes the significance of words. She thought he knew how she felt about him. But it took her speaking “I want you…to be mine” for both of them to fully grasp the love between them. At some point, Simon had become her other son in her heart, and now they both know it. The paperwork makes it official, but the words made it real.

That story reminded me of an experience my husband shared with me in the early days of our marriage, when he taught 8th graders at a Christian school. One day he tried to communicate what it meant to be a child of God. The theological reasoning and biblical passages were not doing the trick. They just didn’t seem impressed by all the big words and concepts. For the most part they were secure kids, safe and loved in their families.

The solution finally came to him. He called up one little girl and asked her to tell her story. She had recently been adopted by her foster family.

“What did it mean to you when your parents sat down and told you they wanted to adopt you?” he asked her, in front of the class. She responded, “It was amazing. It meant that they chose me. From everyone they could have chosen, they picked me. I didn’t have to do anything. They already knew what kind of kid I was, but I knew they loved me because they picked me.” She said it simply, with a huge smile on her face.

“I want you.” “They picked me.” Life-giving words.

“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 to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (Ephesians 1:4-5).

God’s love manifests itself most profoundly in the concepts of redemption and adoption. Those who are called his children have done nothing to earn it. Each of us has been adopted. That he knew our faults and chose us anyway just reflects the magnitude of his love.

So if you’ve ever felt unworthy of God, unfit to be accepted by him, join the club. He loves you anyway, and he wants you to hear his words.

“I want you!” he says.

Come as you are. Right now. He wants you. He has plans for you.

And they are good.