Tommy’s Way of Rebuking Me

Written by Warren |Posted on January 1, 2010 | Comments

Adopting a child, like having one of your own, is never easy. There are moments, as usual, when Tommy would do something that would disappoint me. And there are moments when I, the other “I” which is my depraved nature, would react in a very unchristan manner. I would observe my reactions, and though I don’t say it, I would realize that I would immediately respond in such a manner as to say the reason why Tommy is disappointing me is because he is not my son by blood. Like saying if he were my son by blood, he wouldn’t be disappointing me. But this too is wrong. Because whether I adopt or have a child of my own blood, I would still raise a child whose sinful nature was imputed by Adam.

Instead of continuing on blaming others, I reflected on my actions against Tommy and saw my depraved state and thought to myself, would Jesus respond the way I responded? Would He say “it’s because you’re not my blood that’s why you keep on sinning”? That’s not what the Bible tells us though. The scripture said that Jesus died for us not because we are deserving. In fact Jesus died for us even while we were cursing Him to His face (Romans 5:8). And that’s clearly disappointing Him and yet He chose to adopt us (Ephesians 1:5). We humans would normally wait for someone to please us for us to like or love them, but Jesus died for us in order to adopt us while we hated Him.

Having Tommy in our family reflects how I respond to God’s grace and mercy to me. Tommy is such a blessing to us not only because he makes us laugh, but because he reminds us of how imperfect our love for the adopted is when compared to Christ’s love for the Church.

Comments

superpan

It's just now i read this and it's a blessing. God bless you for adopting Tommy. and God bless Tommy for coming into your life. And may the Lord Jesus Christ be praised for even considering adopting all of those whom He elected, for unfathomable reasons in the face of their depravities.