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Expectations

samuel kee —  April 28, 2013 — Leave a comment

where are youI’ll never forget when I chipped my teeth in college.  I was at wrestling practice and came down hard on my jaw.  I got up to my feet and felt these bits of bony teeth in my mouth.  Somewhat shocked, I ran over to my coach and said, “Coach, I chipped my teeth!”  Now, I was hoping he’d give me some sympathy, saying something like, “Why don’t you go down to the trainer and get a massage.”  Or, “You can take the rest of the practice off.”  Or even, “Go get a drink and inspect the damage,” would have been good enough for me.  But I’ll never forget what he said.  He squinted his eyes and asked, “How long have you been wrestling?”  Unprepared for his question, I stammered, “About ten years.”  He then said, “You mean to tell me you’ve been wrestling for ten years and you’ve never chipped your teeth?”  And then he walked away!  His point was clear: when you sign up for wrestling, you’re signing up to get your teeth chipped.  If you do a contact sport, then, guess what, you can expect to get contacted!  And this is the same message found in the Bible.  In Romans 8, God wants us to know that nothing will separate us from his love.  Verse 39 says, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”  Even though that is true, we’re told in verse 36 of the same chapter that we are also like sheep waiting to be slaughtered.  Both are true.  When you sign up to be a Christian, you’ll find you have absolute invincible love from God for all eternity; AND, you’ll end up getting your teeth chipped.  It’s just part of what it means to be a Christian.  Just because you’re going through trials does not mean that God loves you any less or that you did something to upset Him.  It may just mean that you’re really on the team.

© Samuel Kee, 2013

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The Painted Lion: How Affliction Works for Good

samuel kee —  October 27, 2012 — Leave a comment

While the 17th-century minister Thomas Watson makes it clear that trials are sad evils, he is quick to point out that God uses them for our good.[1]  Ours is a God not just of death, but also of resurrection; he loves to bring good from evil, glory from gory.  Listen to these powerful words from Watson, who starts off this section by saying, “Therefore I shall show you several ways how affliction works for good.”  The first way is that affliction is our preacher and tutor.

Luther said that he could never rightly understand some of the Psalms, till he was in affliction.  Affliction teaches what sin is.  In the word preached, we hear what a dreadful thing sin is, that it is both defiling and damning, but we fear it no more than a painted lion; therefore God lets loose affliction, and then we feel sin bitter in the fruit of it.  A sick-bed often teaches more than a sermon.  We can best see the ugly visage of sin in the glass of affliction.  Affliction teaches us to know ourselves.  In prosperity we are for the most part strangers to ourselves.  God makes us know affliction, that we may better know ourselves.  We see that corruption in our hearts in the time of affliction, which we would not believe was there.  Water in the glass looks clear, but set it on fire, and the scum boils up.  In prosperity a man seems to be humble and thankful, the water looks clear; but set this man a little on the fire of affliction, and the scum boils up—much impatience and unbelief appear.  ‘Oh,’ says a Christian, ‘I never thought I had such a bad heart, as now I see I have; I never thought my corruptions had been so strong, and my graces so weak.’[2]

Affliction takes the blinders off our eyes, teaching us that there is more to this world than meets the eye.  We cruise along, paying little or no attention to the spiritual realities around us, living completely for ourselves and our agendas, feeding our complacency and our narcissism.  We know “about” the roaring lion, we suspect that we should do what is right, but we’re little convinced.  Suddenly, when the lion steps out from the canvas, we are jolted back to reality: we understand that we play by more than just natural laws.  There are spiritual laws we must abide by, if we’re to be happy and please God.  We realize that we’re not basically good people, but that we’re evil, through and through.  Before affliction, we live in denial about ourselves, thinking that not too much is wrong with us.  We don’t know that our hearts are bad and ready to burst.  Affliction shows us our need of a Physician, if we’re to have any hope at all, in saving ourselves from ourselves.

Affliction is one of our finest teachers.

© Samuel Kee, 2012

[1] I will be quoting from All Things for Good by Thomas Watson (PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1986).

[2] Pages 27-28.

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(thought you might need to hear this)

samuel kee —  May 19, 2012 — 1 Comment

ImageYou are sitting on a treasure and you don’t even realize it.  That treasure is you.  Other people see it.  I see it.  But you don’t.  Why can’t you see it?  Why can’t you see what I see?  You are so precious, so full of worth.  You are a gift, a treasure—why can’t you see it?

You don’t see the treasure that is you, you see only the junk that gets mixed up in our lives.  It’s the stuff that’s there, in everybody’s life, but it’s not who you are.  Other people shove their junk in your path; you even add yours to theirs.  But that doesn’t define who you are; it just gives us all something to do.

You are the treasure, can’t you see it?  God made a bold move to earth in order to snatch you up for himself.  He gave away his Son in order to provide a way for you to return home.  And something’s worth is defined by what someone is willing to give away in order to get it.  God has his special eye on you, for he is a real treasure-hunter.  And you are his treasure.

© Samuel Kee, 2012

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Cherries

samuel kee —  June 16, 2011 — Leave a comment

God is giving us the ability to love others.

The cherries were the biggest that I’ve ever seen on our trees.  It didn’t make sense to me, however, since we were in the middle of a drought inNortheastern Ohio.  I learned that the cherry trees basically “freaked out” because of the lack of water, so to make sure that they didn’t die off, they produced the biggest cherries they could.  It’s remarkable to see that great famine can lead to great fruit.

Yes, there can be benefits from suffering.

“Sympathy is love perfected by experience” (H. L. Goudge).  That’s what the Apostle Paul has in mind in 2 Corinthians 1:4, when he writes that God “comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Sympathy is love perfected by experience.  It’s harder to love someone when you don’t know what they’re going through.  Love is perfected when you can feel what another feels.  When we experience afflictions, God is giving us the ability to love others deeply, unlike we were able to do before.  God gives us a precious gift in our suffering: comfort.  In turn, we love others best when we pass along this same precious gift from God.

There may be many purposes in your suffering, but don’t neglect to see this one.  Your affliction can be used to heal another down the road.  You are burying seeds in the soil of suffering now, but you will soon reap the harvest and be able to give the fruit to another.

© Samuel Kee, 2011

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Water

samuel kee —  May 10, 2011 — 2 Comments

There is movement in suffering.

The heavy water gushed against my chest with some of it splashing into my mouth.  I held my fifty pound backpack above my head, trying with all my might not to drop it.  All the while, I stumbled through the swollen river, trying to make it to the other side.  One of my sandals came off my foot, caught on a rock somewhere on the riverbed; snakes coiled around my ankles every step of the way.

We were near the end of a spring break backpacking trip; each of my college classmates had to pass through the river like this.  Only one dropped her backpack into the water.  We did everything we could to pass through the river.  None of us wanted to remain there, in that dangerous place of currents, rocks, and snakes.

This experience reminds me of how trials are like a scary river: they are meant to be passed through.

There’s a verse in Isaiah 43 that captures this truth:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.[1]

Notice the verbs that have “you” as the subject; they each have to do with travel: “pass” and “walk.”  In other words, there is nothing in these verbs that has to do with staying or remaining or arriving.  The verse doesn’t say, “When you arrive in the deep waters.”  Why? –Because suffering is not our destination.  We were not meant to stay in it, but to pass through it.

You must know that there is movement in suffering.  You must know that trials will not last.  You will get through them and arrive safely on the other side of the river.

God wants us to keep walking in our trials; he doesn’t want us to pitch our tents in the middle of the river.  And while we walk, he deepens his fellowship with us.  This is called “the fellowship of suffering,” where our steps entrain with God’s, linking us with him, in ways we never thought possible.

As you pass through your trial, God will be with you.  Suffering will not last, but God’s unconditional love for you will last.

© Samuel Kee, 2011

[1] Isaiah 43:2.

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Top Ten About God

samuel kee —  April 4, 2011 — 2 Comments

God delights in us, just how we are.

At the risk of reducing Divinity down to a top ten list (not to mention the risk of being a little too narcissistic) here are the top ten things I love about God:

10. God gives us a new identity and worth.

I’m always chasing after answers to the questions: “Who am I?” and “Am I worthy?”  God says, “You’re mine!” and “Yes, you’re worth the price of my Son on the cross.”  Unconditional love is such a relief!  At the end of each day, I can go to sleep knowing that I’m a “wanted man.”  God wants me more than I can imagine; and it makes all the difference in the world to know that you are wanted.

9. God gives us his words in the words of humans (the Bible).

This is a huge one for me: I am a Bible FREAK!  I love reading the Bible, meditating on it, and learning about God from it.  Reading the Bible is my favorite part of the day!  I know that seems a little cheesy and a lot nerdish, but hey, I’m okay with that (see #10!)

8. God keeps hope alive, no matter what.

When Jesus stood up after death, he introduced a new economy of hope into this hopeless world.  Death no longer has the last word; life has the last word.  Hope is alive because hope is resurrected.  It reminds me of when Martin Luther (the 16th Century German Reformer) came home in a sullen mood, only to find his wife (Katy) dressed in black mourning clothes, complete with a head veil.  Martin asked his wife, “Who died?”  Katy responded something like this: “Well, since the great and holy doctor of faith and theology, Martin Luther, walks around so sad and defeated these days, I assumed that God himself had died!”  Ha!  Katy knew that so long as Jesus is alive, we always have hope.

7. God loves the way he made each person.

Each person is remarkable!  It seems like God accepts that fact way before we accept that fact.  Perhaps the best advice we could follow is “Be Yourself!”  We’re so unsure of ourselves, always asking ourselves if we’re “doing it right.”  God hand-crafted each person and loves to see each personality blossom.  God delights in us, just how we are.

6. God’s Spirit gives me power when I need it the most.

Apart from God, I am completely not “sticky.”  God’s Spirit makes me sticky.  This means that a whole bunch of God’s benefits stick to me through the bond of the Spirit.  Before, I had little joy or peace, but the Spirit causes God’s joy and peace to stick to me.  Before, I had no goodness, but the Spirit causes God’s own goodness to stick to me.  The same can be said of my life when I am weak.  Apart from the Spirit, I am weak, but with the Spirit, God causes his power to stick to me.  Just when I’m at my wit’s end, the Spirit keeps me going.  The Spirit is the superglue that bonds me to God, the only source of life.

5. God not only forgives, but he also transforms.

I can’t think of two greater things that I want (need!) for my life.  I want to be forgiven: I have so many sins that it’s overwhelming.  I need God to deal with my sins, once and for all, and now!  It’s not fun living in sin’s prison!  But I just don’t want to be forgiven, I also want to be transformed.  I want to become better and better.  I want to make progress and become all that I can be.  God not only forgives, but also he transforms.  He loves me right where I am at, but he doesn’t leave me there.

4. God knows what it is like to walk in my shoes.

God decided to clothe himself in humanity and come live among us.  Jesus is “God with us.”  God wasn’t afraid to get dirty, in other words.  He loved us too much to stay away. So he put on the flesh of Jesus and experienced real life.  This means that God is very personal: he knows what it’s like to walk in our shoes.  He suffered, hungered, cried, laughed, dreamed, and wet the bed!  He completely contextualized to human life (with the exception of sin).  I don’t follow a God who cannot relate to me, but one who knows what it’s like to be me.

3. God is relentless…he keeps pursuing me, even when I run away and hide.

The great man of faith and suffering, Job, once said to God, “God, would you just leave me alone long enough so that I can at least swallow my own spit!” (Job 7:19, my translation).  God wouldn’t leave Job alone for one second.  God chases after us, like a loving father chases after his children.  And even when we are faithless, he remains faithful (2 Tim 2:13).  God can be quite a stalker!

2. God does not play favorites, but loves everyone equally and has a big dream for the world.

All kinds of people are welcome to God’s home and around God’s table.  He’s got a place for everyone, no matter their age, gender, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status, family background, maturity, training, accomplishments, etc., etc.  All are welcome to come home to God through his Son Jesus.  God does not just dream for a certain minority group, but for the whole world.  His lap is large!  He especially has a place for those who realize that they are not worthy and have nothing good to offer.

1. God found a way to call me a friend and be with me forever.

Yes, me!  And if you know me, you know what a miracle this is!  God wants to be in a relationship with me not just here and now (though that’s still pretty awesome), but forever.  He gave all of him to get all of me.  Friends do that: they find a way to make important relationships happen and they don’t bail on you.  My translation of the title “Lord” is “The One who does not bail!”  (It’s funnier if you know Hebrew…).  God loves us and he’ll never leave us.

So there they are, the top ten things I love about God.

© Samuel Kee, 2011

 

 

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Seven Secrets, Part 6

samuel kee —  March 7, 2011 — Leave a comment

God wants to draw our attention away from our daily struggles.

As we have explored the scene around the throne of God, we have discovered five spectacular secrets of heaven so far.  The sixth secret is found in the next few verses of Revelation 4:

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back.  The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle.  Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings.  Day and night they never stop saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”[1]

The sixth secret is this: the celebration never ends for us. 

The four living creatures represent all of creation.  I know they seem weird, but these fantastic beings stand for all that God has made.  God is the Creator, something we are always in danger of trivializing.  As Creator, God has powerful rights over us, for without God, nothing would be.  All that he has created is contingent and not-necessary.  God is the only “necessary” being: he could live without us, but we could not live without him.  Every smile and every tear, every meal and every hunger pain, every embrace and every battle, can be traced back to God.  Without God there would be nothing. 

And God’s creation is creative!  Just look at the four living creatures around the throne.  Their strangeness allows us to see afresh just how creative God is.  The same creative strangeness can be seen all around us, in the “normal” things we take for granted: sunflowers, clouds, squirrels, and grasshoppers.  These four living creatures around the throne join all the other living creatures, as they are all wonderful creations of God. 

Around the throne of God, the celebration never ends.  All of creation sees and celebrates the wonder of Creator God.  Notice that the four creatures are covered with eyes.  These eyes tell us that they never miss anything that God does.  Has God created a walrus?  They did not miss that and they celebrate in response.  Did God create a newborn baby?  They did not miss that either and they celebrate in response.  Did God create a ladybug?  They did not miss that, either, and they celebrate in response.

That is why the celebration never ends, because God’s amazing creative powers never end.  And the four beings never stop noticing how awesome God is.  They always have a reason to party.

The presence of the party is our source of joy.  We laugh until we cry as we re-discover God every day.  His beauty never comes to an end; you never stop being astonished by God.  Day and night, the astonishment never ends, nor do the joyful, sacred cries of “holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”  Just when you think that God has hit you with all that he has, you realize that more is coming.  He never comes to an end.  God never stops impacting you with his majesty and overwhelming you with his glory.  God never gets old and creation never gets bored.

The events around the throne were meant to cause a scene.  We are allowed to peak into the council chamber of God and witness the strange extravagance for a simple reason: to draw our attention away from present suffering.  The apostle John wrote Revelation to early Christians who faced rejection and persecution daily.  He wrote to men, women, and children whose lives were anything but extravagant.  Their faith in Jesus was costing them their jobs, homes, and even their lives.

Thus God wants to draw our attention away from our daily struggles.  By allowing us to see the wild worship of creation and to hear their eternal song, we realize that trials only last for a night.  Dawn brings celebration.  The emotion around the throne is meant to spill all over us, giving us hope for tomorrow. 

The scene was also meant for another kind of person, the kind of person whose attention was stolen by the riches of the world.  The world has its own form of extravagance, which seeks to steal our hearts.  We are tempted to focus on riches that are temporary, rather than eternal.  So the everlasting celebration around the throne serves as a corrective for those who struggle with compromise.  God wants us to know that long after moth and rust destroy the present riches of this world, his party will still be going on, in full force. 

The sixth spectacular secret of heaven is that the party never ends; therefore, fix your eyes on Jesus.

[1] Revelation 4:6b-8.

© 2011 by Samuel Kee

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Seven Spectacular Secrets of Heaven Part 1

samuel kee —  February 28, 2011 — Leave a comment

Someone steers it all and guides it all.

The book of Revelation reveals some amazing things to us—I guess that’s why it’s called “Revelation.”  I’d like to spend the next seven posts exploring one chapter from this captivating book called Revelation.  As we examine Revelation 4, we’ll discover seven spectacular secrets of Heaven. 

But first I have to tell you why this is so important.  We are like boats that have drifted away from our home; we are lost, scared, and storm-tossed.  We are nauseous from all the rocking and uncertainty.  We don’t know what’s real anymore and we definitely have trouble realizing our purpose.  Revelation 4 is like an anchor.  Revelation 4 is like homecoming for ships that are weary from battle.                                     

We need to know what heaven holds for us.  We need to know what is real and what is fake, especially if we want to live, thrive, and fulfill our purpose.  Some of us have been stuffing our mouths with nothing but artificial living, year after year, decade after decade.  We know that something is not quite right, yet we are not aware of any other way to live.

That’s why we need to know the seven spectacular secrets of heaven.  Heaven holds a treasure for us, while it roots us in reality.  Just in case we feel like we’re “flying upside down,” to quote Dallas Willard, heaven stands us on our feet.  Heaven invites us into the secret council room of God, where we get to witness the inner workings of the cosmos.  And by knowing the inner workings, we are better able to handle the external manifestations.

Here’s the invitation:

After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven.  And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”[1]

We are personally invited to witness that which humans should not be able to experience: the very council chamber of God.  We see what he sees and experience what he experiences.  Our hope is that by understanding these secrets of the council room, we will be able to cope with and even thrive under, the decisions that are made there.

Here’s the first spectacular secret: There is a throne at the center of it all.  After our invitation, the next verse says:

At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.

A throne is at the center of all reality—never forget that.  Reality is governed by an ultimate power.  The throne is the command center, much like the helm of a ship.  The throne is the helm of the ship, where the one sitting on the throne guides and directs it all.  At the DNA of the universe and of all reality is a throne, and it’s not vacant. 

Life is not random or chaotic or purposeless or meaningless or out of control; life is directed, controlled, overseen, governed, created, ordered, fixed, and healed.  Someone steers it all and guides it all, whether the rise of the sun or the setting of a life.  It all falls under the jurisdiction of the throne, where the King of kings sits.

Your life is being steered right now, in other words.  By peeling back the false reality that we’re used to staring at, and getting a glimpse into the council chamber of God, we are able to see that all is well: Someone is at the helm.

Finally, and may this give you even more courage, a human is at the helm.  We learn this later in Revelation (in 5:6 we see that the Lamb, who is Jesus, is on the throne) and also in Hebrews 12:2, among other places.  Jesus is the human who is on the throne.  Jesus is both fully divine AND fully human.  Because he overcame death, he is given the right to sit at the helm of the ship, the command center of the universe.

Why is this so encouraging?  Because a human, someone who has walked in our shoes, is in charge; and he has extravagant compassion for his friends in need.  Someone who is just like us—except without sin—is in control.  There is no one better to steer the ship as it makes the arduous journey from this life to the next than Jesus, for having lived in both, he knows the way.  He has made your journey before; and now he comes back to you in order to make the journey a second time, but with you.  Only the God-Man has what it takes to steer us into everlasting life. 

The first spectacular secret of heaven is that a throne is at the center of it all, from which Jesus guides us home. 

You are going to make it.

[1] Revelation 4:1

© 2011 by Samuel Kee

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Soul Tattoo

samuel kee —  February 25, 2011 — 1 Comment

Don't ever try to feed yourself anything else.

When I was growing up, my family owned goats.  We had a barn and a nice pasture for them to roam.  They kept the lawn both fertilized and manicured!  When they stayed in the barn, however, there would always be a nice pile of, well, you know, scat.  Feces.  Goat poo—you get the point.

Once one of my siblings and I decided to play a small prank on our other siblings (there were five of us, so we could do this sort of thing).  We emptied a carton of Milk Duds, which is a small, round chocolate candy.  Then we filled the carton with “other” Milk Duds.  We picked the choicest goat poop and filled the large, yellow carton with it.  The resemblance between goat feces and Milk Duds is quite remarkable, you know. 

Then the moment of magic happened: putting on generous faces, we gave the Trojan horse away.  Our special gift was received with great excitement—a whole carton of Milk Duds was an outstanding present.  Our siblings took the carton, opened the top, reached inside, and…    

To protect the guilty, I can’t tell you what happened next.  Sorry.

But I would like to tell you about something that I find equally disgusting.  I meet people all the time who don’t know the truth about the Christian faith.  They think that to be a Christian is to be someone who hates gays.  Or, to be a Christian is to be someone who is against those of other religious faiths.  To be a Christian, they say, is to be narrow-minded and intolerant, hateful and arrogant.  As Bono sings in Cedars of Lebanon, we have let our enemies define us.    

Further, I meet many people who think that God is against them and is full of only judgment and wrath.  They think that God is against having fun, that God doesn’t understand, and that God hasn’t done anything good for the world.

I find all of this to be disgusting, like a carton filled with goat dung.  In fact, that’s the carton that many have been handed, for whatever reason.  The “God” carton has been sabotaged, as the true candy has been replaced with the foul stuff. 

The truth is that God is love (1 John 4:16).  The truth is that God is full of overwhelming love; his love led him to put his Son to death so that humans could be free from death.  The truth is that God judged his Son and poured out his wrath on his Son so that we might become his new children.  The truth is that God is making this world right again and therefore we have hope. 

To be a Christian is to be someone who is broken, forgiven, accepted and loved.  A Christian is not someone who is against certain issues, but someone who is for God’s love and from God’s love.  Christians love other people until it hurts, just as they have done through the ages.  Jesus tells his followers to love others as much as they love themselves, which is one of the most radical commands ever given (Mark 12:31). 

It breaks my heart to see that some people do not know how much God loves them.  It breaks my heart to realize that some people don’t know how precious they are, that some actually think that they are failures or worthless cases.  That sort of thinking is dung compared with the sweet taste of God’s love.

Can I give you a tattoo?  Hold still; this won’t hurt too badly.  I’d like to tattoo this verse of Scripture on your soul, so that you’ll never forget it.  This is what God says to his people:

“You are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you.”[1]

Don’t ever forget that.  And don’t ever try to feed yourself anything else. 

[1] Isaiah 43:4.

© 2011 by Samuel Kee

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Adoption

samuel kee —  February 7, 2011 — 2 Comments

So then why did we adopt?

When I was three years-old, my parents decided that we should foster a child.  I remember the first day that Brian came into our lives—he was three, too.  I had two older sisters, so it was fun to have another boy in our home. 

The “idea” was for us to help this child through a rough patch in his life.  For whatever reason, Brian’s biological family could not be a part of his life; so Brian was put in custody of the state.  The state tried to put kids like Brian into loving foster homes, even if just temporarily. 

Most kids bounce around from foster home to foster home.  I can’t imagine having a childhood like that.  And, to be honest, I don’t know how many homes Brian went to before he found ours.

His last name was King; mine was Kee.

Brian lived with our family for a number of years.  Then in the second grade, we decided to make it official; we chose to adopt Brian into our family.  He would no longer be called King, but Kee, just like me.

We started off just wanting to help a child for a little while, but we grew in love with Brian.  We wanted him in our family.

We did not need him to be in our family, we wanted him to be in our family.  There’s a vast difference between the two.  After all, my parents didn’t need a child, since they already had three children (and would eventually have five).  We didn’t need Brian so that we could finally be a family or finally be happy.  We already were a family and we already were happy.  We did not need Brian because of the money he would bring into our home; in fact, he didn’t bring any money to our family and he would eventually cost our family, as do all children. 

So why then did we adopt him?  If not because of need, then why?  Because we wanted him and we loved him.  We would have been just fine without him; he did not make-up for anything that we lacked.  His adoption was completely for love’s sake, because he was precious and we wanted him to be a part of our lives. 

Brian has been my brother ever since; and he always will be.

This is analogous to what it means to be adopted by God as his child.  Romans 8:15-16 says, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption.  And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

We are not slaves, but adopted children.  A master needs a slave (to do work, serve him, earn him money, etc.); a father does not need an adopted child.  God did not need more children in order to be complete or happy or fulfilled, much like my family did not need another child. 

So if God chose to adopt us as his children, then why did he do it?  It was not because God needed us, but because God wanted us.  God did not adopt us out of obligation, but out of love.  He did not welcome us into his family out of his lack, but so that he could give to us from his fullness.

God wants to make you his child.  Just let that statement penetrate into your soul: God wants you.  That’s the only reason why he would ever bring you into his family.  He wants you and he loves you.  There are no conditions that you have to meet and there are no obligations that you have to uphold.  God freely adopted you, and those in his family live in the freeness of his love.  This means that we don’t have to fear a time when nobody wants us; we are not to be slaves to that kind of emotional abuse.

Instead, we live in the freedom of being an adopted child of God, knowing that Somebody wants us, at every second, of every day. 

It strikes me that Brian King no longer exists; only Brian Kee remains.  If you’re adopted by God, then the old, unwanted person doesn’t exist anymore; there’s only the precious, loved, and wanted self that remains.  Thus to be adopted is synonymous with being wanted.

© 2011 by Samuel Kee

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