most immediately, there came two sons of their own. Finally, to make the family complement of three boys complete, they adopted a little baby girl. They have quite frankly told the adopted children, now fairly well grown, "We espe cially selected you! We love the two boys God gave to us natur ally, of course, but you we pur posely sought out to become a part of our family." What a beauti ful picture of adoption that gives us, and it is only on the human plane. There is no question as to God's love for His own Son, but think of the divine love the Lord has so graciously shown in purposely seeking us out that we might be come a part of His family through out all eternity (Romans 8:17). When, by faith, we receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, we can nev er be legally disinherited. We are eternally secure in the province of God. Newspapers carried the account of a little Polynesian girl about five years of age who had been no ticed by a wealthy French manu facturer and his wife while they were on a trip to the South Sea Islands. The poor little waif, or phaned at birth, had no place to go, no family, and lived by begging from hand-to-mouth. The wealthy people were so moved in their hearts by the appearance of this pathetic little lass that they de cided to take her home with them, gaining the necessary permission from the local government. So, from the Polynesian isles she was brought to their lovely home in Versailles where she lived in un believable luxury. Then, all of a sudden, the wealthy man passed away. He left an estate of some 68
million dollars. The widow, who had been so moved by the love she and her husband shared for this little orphan, declared that the child should share jointly with her. It was all a result of her husband's love. Doubtless, that little five or six year old would have no real con ception of what it meant to be a millionaire, especially at her age. And I wonder if we fully realize what it means to be an heir of God and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ. All things are ours. All we need to do is to possess them. Paul sug gests, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them who love Him." The adoption we have in Christ is not because we are beautiful or educated or socially graceful, but rather this act of di vine compassion and mercy and love is all according to the good pleasure of God's will. A visitor was going through an art gallery one day. She was tre mendously moved by the beautiful paintings which were to be seen on every hand. Overcome with the masterpieces, she felt she had to share her ecstasy with someone. The only person around was an elderly scrub woman. She raptur ously turned to the unimpressed worker, "Oh, there are so many beautiful pictures to see in here; I just cannot get over it!" The la bourer stopped her efforts long enough to observe, "Well, I s'pose you are right, that is . . . if a body has time to look up!" I think she is a lot like many of us. How tragic that we fail to look up into the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are so occupied with all our
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