God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. Ephesians 1:5 (NLT)

Martin Luther King holiday weekend is always a special time in the Benedict household. We call it “adoption day”, because it was January 18, 2010 that we officially received our daughter Katelyn. We use the extra day to celebrate with a special family activity.  Often, we go out to eat at an authentic Chinese restaurant and sit down and look at the photos and videos of our epic 2-week trip to China.  We recall and tell stories of the people we met, places we went and sights we saw- Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, standing on the Great Wall of China, walking around Tiananmen Square….  It was the experience of a lifetime.  But all that pale in significance to the moment we met our daughter for the first time. It’s been 12 years now, and I can still recall every emotion, action and thought in vivid detail.

It was an amazing three-year journey that got us to that day; applications, dossiers, interviews, documents, fingerprinting, background checks, financial disclosures, and of course, many thousands of dollars.  For us, as happened to many who were adopting from China during that time, the process took so long that much of our paperwork expired and had to be refiled. Three years is a long time to wait and frankly, at times we were discouraged. But looking back, we can see God’s faithful hand of provision all along the way.

And then, suddenly, on Thanksgiving weekend, 2009, it happened.  Our application for Katelyn was accepted.  We were approved and given a travel date for mid-January.  This unleashed a whirlwind.  In six weeks, we remodeled three bathrooms, repainted 3 bedrooms, rearranged furniture, and made travel arrangements.  After 3 years of waiting, this sudden blur of activity was both thrilling and disorienting.

But then, on January 18, 2010, it all came together. Pam and I sat in a large conference room on the ninth floor of a dingy, non-descript hotel in the center of Shanghai, 8,000 miles from home.  We sat at an individual table in the company of 14 other couples who were adopting as well, nervously fidgeting with the crayons, coloring pages and the stuffed animal we had brought to help our 7-year-old non-English speaking daughter understand that we loved her.

After filling out another ream of documents, we sat quietly until the door suddenly flung open. There at the door was a line of children accompanied by the director of the children’s home and some caregivers.  One by one, the children were announced and stepped through the doorway into the conference room amid much clapping, where they were presented to their new parents. Years later, Katelyn told us that they had not even been told that this day was their adoption day. They were merely bathed, fed, dressed and put on a bus to an unknown location.

As the ceremony proceeded, we tried to listen carefully because everything was said in Chinese.  Our ears, unaccustomed to the language, were tuned for “Xu Yaxiu”, the name the orphanage gave our daughter when she first arrived as an infant.  And then, five or six children into the list, We heard her name. And there she was.  It was an indescribable moment of joy. Suddenly, all the waiting, anxiety, hardship and sacrifice of the adoption process melted away in the joy of having our new daughter come home.

Our adoption experience has really opened Pam and my eyes to how God feels about his people.  We don’t often think about God having strong emotions towards us, but he does. And unfortunately, we most likely believe that God thinks negatively about us- that on our best days God only tolerates us and, on our worst, surely, he must despise us for all of our imperfection and brokenness.  But is that true?

The Bible paints quite a different picture.  In fact, it lifts the curtain to show us exactly what God was thinking and feeling the very moment he adopted you into his family. Ephesians 1:5 (above) reveals that God planned our adoption well in advance.  He wanted you in his family and it gave him great pleasure to bring you home. And at the moment that we repent and put our faith in Jesus, “there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God (Luke 15:10).” It’s like a shepherd who loses a sheep and after exhaustive searching finds her.  He joyfully carries the lost sheep home and calls his friends and neighbors over to have a party (Luke15:3-7). Or like a father who has waited every single day for his wayward son to return home.  And when he does, the father completely restores him and throws a celebration feast that the whole town will talk about for years (Luke 15:20-24). That’s how much God cares for us. It brings him great joy to adopt us as sons and daughters.

When I think about what I was feeling at the adoption of our daughter, it gives me a little glimpse of what God thinks about me and what He thinks about you. I find that comforting and it strengthens my faith. If God loves me that much, I can trust him for the future.  I can follow him closely today. And I certainly can believe that his promises to me are true. `And so can you.