God’s Family

“The father has loved us so much that we are called children of God. And we really are his children” (1 John 3:1, NCV).

Do you know what it means to be adopted? My family had a dog named Jazz that adopted a kitten named Tiger. When we brought little Tiger home from the animal shelter, Jazz didn’t like her. Jazz barked once and then walked away.

Little Tiger didn’t like to be alone, so she would cry when we weren’t holding her. When Jazz heard her meowing, she came to see what the fuss was all about.

Tiger liked Jazz, and she would try to follow the dog everywhere it went. At first, Jazz didn’t care what Tiger did. She would run off barking or playing and leave the kitten behind. But every time Jazz lay down to rest, Tiger was there, purring and snuggling in beside her.

Before long, Jazz was treating Tiger like her own puppy. They would play together, eat together, and sleep in the same spot. Jazz adopted the kitten into her family—even though kittens didn’t really belong there—and they were friends for years.

Adopted into God’s Family

God does the same thing for us when He offers to give us salvation. Salvation is a big word that means “being saved” or “being rescued.” Just as you can rescue people from drowning by pulling them out of the water, God rescues us from sin by adopting us into His family.

All of us are sinners. We are born to be enemies of God. But God loves us anyway. The Bible says, “God shows his great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8, NCV).

Even while we were God’s enemies and didn’t belong in His family, God wanted us there. He adopts us into His family when we say, “I love Jesus, and I believe He died to rescue me from sin.” Then we ask God to forgive us for the things we’ve done that are bad or mean, and we ask Him to change us so we’ll always be like Jesus.

That makes us part of God’s family! And when we’re part of God’s family, we can plan on going to Heaven and living with Him forever.

God has a special plan to help us live as Jesus did. He sent the Holy Spirit to teach us. The Holy Spirit speaks in our hearts, helping us learn about Jesus and helping us remember to live as Jesus did, always being kind to others and always trusting in God.

Even when we were His enemies, God loved us and sent Jesus to save us. When we accept Jesus, He adopts us into His family.

If you liked this, you might also like A Little Girl’s Best Friend | Adoption Into God’s Family 

Jerry D. Thomas lived in the Pacific Northwest.

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