Father, I continue to be amazed at how you put up with us. We can be downright nasty! But Your forgiveness continues to be extended from Your unfathomable reservoir of love. We don’t deserve a lick of it but it is given freely and abundantly!
John 1:12-13 (<<click here to read the passage)
I was poking around looking for an adoption success story and came across one on the Heart Gallery of America website. Their motto is “All Children Deserve a Family”. The article was entitled, A Real Home for Christmas. (<<click here to read the entire story)
Master Moore is the child in the story, and he went into foster care at four years of age, along with 2 brothers and several cousins who were found to be in neglectful care. His brothers were adopted early on but not Master. Instead, he found himself shuffled around the New Jersey foster care program for the next 10 years.
Then in early 2005 someone asked him to participate in The Heart Gallery of New Jersey, a traveling photographic exhibit of adoptable children in the state’s care. Master was told someone might see his photograph, read his story and want to adopt him. He shrugged. “Sure, why not?” he said. Master had heard people say miracles happen, but he had never seen one himself. Still, he decided to tell his story — if not for himself, then for all of the kids just like him. He felt regardless of whether he found a family it was important for people to know that even teenagers want and deserve families.
When he was featured in the first Heart Gallery exhibition in 2005, he was in his 12th placement. Foster care had not been overly kind to him. His foster mother at the time was unpredictable, sometimes nice, sometimes not… During the two years he lived there, she never kissed him goodnight. “As you can see, what’s missing in my life is a real home,” he said at the time.
But his situation was about to change. Master’s story had caught the eye of a kindly Newark man who coincidentally shared the same last name.
In a relatively short time, Michael Moore, raised in foster care himself, and his wife Tracy adopted Master as their own.
The first line of the article sums it up pretty well. Master Moore held his pen over the paper and paused. His mom had asked him to write a Christmas list. Ten things. No guarantees he would get everything he wanted. But as the boy pondered presents like a digital camera or an electronic keyboard, he realized nothing would ever compare to the gift he already had. A real home.
The entire story is well worth the time it takes to read.
We, too, every one of us, are orphans…at least spiritually speaking. Verse 12 begins with John saying concerning the Light…the Word…Christ,
But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the right [the authority, the privilege] to become children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name – who were born, not of blood [natural conception], nor of the will of the flesh [physical impulse], nor of the will of man [that of a natural father], but of God [that is, a divine and supernatural birth – they are born of God – spiritually transformed, renewed, sanctified]. John 1:12-13 AMP
If we will but receive and welcome Him, we, too, can find our “real home” with all the authority and privilege that come with our adoption by Him. In doing so we receive a divine and supernatural birth. We are spiritually transformed, renewed, and sanctified, that is, we are set apart for His use in His love. For what more could we ask? For nothing could ever compare to the gift we already have!
Feb 11th, 2021, Thurs, 5:45 pm
