One of the biggest questions we will ever ask when it comes to Christ, what He did, and what He is doing, “WHY?” Why was He willing to leave the inconceivably wonderful residence in Heaven enjoying unhindered, perfect, eternal fellowship with the Father to be born as a little, helpless, baby boy? Not only born as a man, but born in the most poor of conditions to an extremely poor family. Then, to be rejected by those He came to save, suffer horribly, die an excruciating death, and then have His perfect, unhindered fellowship with the Father BROKEN for the first time in all eternity! WHY? WHAT DROVE Him to do all this? And not only to do all this, but to do it knowing since the beginning that all of those things were going to take place! In order to follow Him, we must know what drove Him!
Thank God He clearly answers that question. Hebrews 12:2, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who FOR THE JOY set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” This point can be greatly expanded upon and it is awe inspiring if to really soak it in! In short, Jesus knew the JOY He would experience by “finishing the work [God] gave Him to do” (John 17:4). He knew the joy He would experience would FAR outweigh the suffering He was required to endure to get there.
So the real question I must answer for my own life, “do I really believe the “suffering” I experience due to following Christ will be far outweighed by the joy I experience in following Him?” Now I must define what “suffering” is here and how it relates to adoption. I call it “suffering” as opposed to suffering without quotes for a reason. People who don’t know Christ will look at our lives (and I will go so far to say many regular church attendees will also) and say, “why would they spend all that money to adopt two special needs children and give up all those nicer cars, houses, etc they can buy with the money?” or “why would they want to take on all that added burden of raising two more kids and special needs kids at that?” There are many other questions that can come along these lines. The bottom line is, in their eyes, this does not make sense and seems like we are adding an unnecessary burden of suffering to our lives when we could easily be enjoying a much better and easier and more comfortable life.
So, at the bottom of heart, I must answer what I believe will bring the greatest joy, the American Dream of the comfortable life or a Cross? Based on His Word and the guidance of His Spirit, I truly believe with all my heart that we are not losing anything, but we are GAINING by choosing to follow Him in this adoption! We are GAINING in so many ways, it is hard to describe them all! We are gaining two daughters, a deeper walk with God, a deeper understanding of His love for us, a stronger family, a closer family, and a powerful witness to His goodness and glory just to name a few.
Praise God that He has freed all those who believe in Him from the desires of this world that will only leave us disappointed, empty, and longing for something more and brought us to a place where we can enjoy the One thing that can satisfy the longing of our hearts, Himself! “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete,” (John 17:11). He makes our joy complete and nothing else even comes close.
Following Him,
Andrew
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