1 John 3:1“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!”

 I am the child of John and Mary Elin. My wife is the child of Glen and Mary. My children are the children of…well, you know. Our parents loved us. Of that I am certain. Ordinarily a parent’s love means you would do almost anything for your children. I once heard a missionary couple talk about their work in Indonesia. They once risked their lives and more to get their children out of the country when radical Islamists were attacking Christians and fire-bombing churches. “You will do almost anything to save your children,” they said. But that my children should be called my children? That doesn’t seem like an extraordinary statement of love. That seems like an ordinary fact.

That we are called the children of God is an example of his lavish love. We don’t deserve it. We weren’t born to him in a physical way. I know that there is a sense in which all people are God’s children because he is the Maker of all things. But John doesn’t have in mind so much our source as he does our relationship. We are no longer born into that relationship with him.

Remember Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus about the need to be born again? It’s more like God claims us and calls us his children by adoption. And we weren’t likely candidates for such a privilege.

When human parents adopt, from time to time one hears that the parents have given the child back. It turns out that the child had some congenital disease or condition they weren’t counting on. Or maybe the little one was born to drug addicts, and it becomes clear that there are going to be some behavioral issues. Mr. and Mrs. Potential Parents of the Year had dreams of the perfect little person in their perfect little family. That dream turns into a nightmare of far more expense, or far more work and heartache, than they counted on. So terrible as it might seem, they give the baby back.

Do you suppose that we have given our heavenly Father any less reason to cancel the adoption? You know the cost. He paid the life of the only natural-born Son in the family. Jesus paid with his blood so that we could be called the children of God.

You know the issues with behavior in the family, because you and I are one of them. We are rebels from the start. We know that our Father is watching us all the time. Still, we choose to disregard his rules.

At my wife’s restaurant they have multiple cameras trained on the employees at all times. Still, they choose to break the rules, or pick at each other, or stand around doing nothing. Of course someone has to take the time to watch the video for them to get caught.

Our Father never takes his eyes off of us. He sees the garbage on the computer screen. He hears the curses we mutter under our breath. He is a witness to our lies and hypocrisies. Whatever it is you do, he knows. And he knows that he will be fighting our behavioral issues until the day we die. There is no brilliant child-psychologist who is going to counsel us out of our sin. It’s not as though we grow up and move out of the house someday to give him some relief.

Despite all this, he claims us for all eternity. We are his children, little as we deserve to have such a distinction.