A Beautiful Story

Our Friday Devotion comes to us from Council Member, Ray Beeman:

"He has made us accepted (bestowed grace upon us) in the Beloved." Ephesians 1:6

I just finished another book (“Grace”) by Max Lucado, and I don’t think he will mind if I use his incredible knowledge of the Word, or his own words, as he relates the story of how an uncle had just told him, at the funeral of Max’s father, how proud his father had been of Max. He wept, and realized that we never outgrow our need for a father’s love; that we are wired to receive it. Then he asks if he can play the role of his uncle in YOUR life (the reader), and that the hand on your shoulder is his, and the words he gives you are GOD’s. He says to not filter, resist, downplay, or deflect them. Just receive:

"MY CHILD, I WANT YOU IN MY NEW KINGDOM. I HAVE SWEPT AWAY YOUR OFFENSES LIKE THE MORNING CLOUDS, YOUR SINS LIKE THE MORNING MIST. I HAVE REDEEMED YOU. THE TRANSACTION IS SEALED; THE MATTER IS SETTLED. I, GOD, HAVE MADE MY CHOICE. I CHOOSE YOU TO BE PART OF MY FOREVER FAMILY."

Let these words cement in your heart a deep, satisfying, fear-quenching confidence that God will never let you go; you belong to Him. "Lee" experienced such security. He was one of the hundreds of thousands of children who had been orphaned by the Civil War, and who were placed on trains that stopped at rural towns and were auctioned off to families who took them in. The Orphan Train. Lee had been put in an orphanage 2 years earlier, with his two brothers, and had then become separated from the brothers on the trains as they were auctioned off; then he was rejected by the first two families that tried to take him in. In the third home, his “8-year old heart was about to break”, and after he had food that night, he went to bed with plans of how to escape this home. At breakfast, as he reached for some biscuits, the lady stopped him and said “not until we’ve said grace.” He watched as they bowed their heads, and she began speaking softly to “Our Father”; he knew just enough to know that it was the same Father as the one in the prayer that visiting preachers had recited at the orphanage. He couldn’t understand why she was talking to Him as though He were sitting there with them waiting for His share of the biscuits. Then she thanked God for the privilege of raising a son, and he stared as she started to smile. Her husband began to smile, too. For the first time since he had boarded the first train, he began to relax. A strange, warm feeling started to fill his aloneness as he looked at the empty chair beside him. Maybe, he thought, in some mysterious way “our Father” was seated there, listening. She concluded with “Help us make the right choices as we guide him, and help him make the right choices too. Amen”

“Dig in, son” from the man startled him! He hadn’t noticed the “amen”. Hate and anger had always seemed like the only choices he had, but now it seemed there were others. After breakfast, they walked to the barbershop, stopping at 6 houses along the way. At each house he was introduced as “our new son” (Ray now: imagine God Himself introducing YOU to YOUR new home). He felt like there was a “homeyness” here that he’d never known before, and he had a feeling that he had found not one new father but two, and he could talk to them both!

The author’s conclusion is that to live as God’s child is to know, at this very instant, that you are loved by your Maker not because you try to please Him and succeed, or fail to please Him and apologize, but because He wants to be your Father! Nothing more. All your efforts to win his affection are unnecessary. All your fears of losing his affection are needless. The adoption is irreversible! You have a place at His table. (Lee never again saw his biological father)

I wept as I read this story, and realized that He has taken me, too, as one of His sons. And I will see Him, and my earthly father too – in the future. I hope you were blessed by this story. I felt the worries of this world slip harmlessly away…

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