"You were bought with a price..."

Finally!!! The one word running through our minds the night we finished our online training!  All references, statements, and required paperwork have been received by our agency for Home Study and now we can have our caseworker assigned! (although we still have one all day training at UAB to attend in June.)  The last couple of months to me have seemed an endless process, more requirements to meet on top of what I already feel to be an abundant but also busy life!  And though we know that there is more work to complete, financial obligation, lots of preparations to be made (both logistically in our home and schedules, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually), Andrew and I both felt we had conquered at least one huge mountain that is now behind us.  
       But in the midst of this extra load in our lives, one short verse has consistently been coming to my mind "you were bought with a price..." 1 Corinthians 6:20.  I am reminded of the expensive price that was paid for me-for all of us- the son of God  left paradise, to come to a fallen and decaying world, who was dismissed, ridiculed, hated, beaten, and crucified-by CHOICE- in order to purchase for Himself, for His pleasure-sinners to become God's very own children, and heirs with God's only begotten son, Jesus.  Though we have in no way come close to being able to imagine the cost Jesus paid in order to cleanse our sin and allow the very spirit of God to live within us, this process so far has served as a reminder that any one of us who loves and follows Christ has been adopted, and the price of that adoption was more costly than we can ever imagine.

Ephesians 1:4-6 ...even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.  In love  he predestined us  for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.


And why did Jesus go through all of that for us?


For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.   Hebrews 12:2
Amy