My Forever Home

 

This is no longer your Daddy’s University of Kentucky football program. The team I have watched win between 2-6 games my entire life is now winning 6-8 regularly under Coach Stoops. Needless to say, we are in an era of unprecedented football success during my lifetime. Much of which can be credited to a few talented players that we aren’t accustomed to having on our roster. One of those players is Lynn Bowden.

The most recent news surrounding Bowden came from his announcement to forgo his senior season at UK and enter the NFL draft. One quote from the video he released on social media stuck out to me most. Bowden says, “To our fans, the Big Blue Nation, you took a kid from Youngstown, Ohio and helped me become a man. For that, this place is my forever home.” If you are familiar with the adoption community in our country, then you know that this phrase, “my forever home”, is the language that is always used for newly adopted children. Bowden’s use of the phrase and his feeling of being adopted got me thinking about the Christian’s adoption by God. I think that God’s adoption of His people has an incredible impact on our lives, but it most specifically affects our identity, our future, and our reality. 

When we read the Bible with the intent to know who we are and our place in this world it doesn’t take long for us to lose hope. In the first 2 chapters of Genesis we see that we are created by God to reflect him and worship him. Yet by chapter 3, we see that we have already broken the single commandment that God had given us. And in our disbelief, our sonship and daughtership is stripped from us and we can no longer be in the presence of our God. 

This theme continues hundreds of years. And then comes Jesus. The Son of God, the Son of Man, who fulfills a life of perfect obedience to God, is unjustly murdered and rises from the dead. And the Bible teaches us that because of this, God can adopt us (Galatians 4:5). So how should this adoption affect our lives? 

If we have been adopted into a new family, we have a new Identity. 

When someone is adopted, there are legal realities that must be dealt with. Luckily, God has dealt with them himself in Christ. We receive righteousness and Christ receives the punishment for our disbelief. Once the legal realities are dealt with the adopted child is officially part of a new family and is now identified differently. For the Christian, that Identity is a child of God. 

Once we are adopted our future is changed for good. 

Paul’s use of adoption in his letter to the Romans can provide for us the details of how our future is changed (Romans 8:15). Adoption for the Romans meant two things. First, the child was chosen by the parents, so they desired the child. Second, once someone was adopted, they could not be disowned. An adopted child has a secure present and a guaranteed future inheritance. For the Christian, this is great news. Nothing can ever separate us from God (Romans 8:38-39), and we have a guaranteed inheritance (Colossians 1:12). 

When we are adopted, we can now live in light of our future. 

One of the incredible benefits of being God’s child is our inheritance. We will one day share in the kingdom of God forever. Because this is true, we don’t have to be consumed with the worries of our world. In fact, the Bible teaches us to spend our time on earth investing in eternity (Matthew 6:19-21). We can do this because our eternity is secure and our reality holds much less value than it once did. The security of our eternity must change the realities of our current concerns. 

As a life-long UK fan, I am so happy that Lexington, Kentucky is the new home of Lynn Bowden. I am excited that he is officially a part of this family. And as a Christian, with the help of Bowden’s words, I can confidently say, “To my God, the one and only true God, you took a sinner from Kentucky, and made him a son. For that, my Forever Home is with you.”