The Adoption Blessing I described in Monday’s post got me thinking about how much I have been blessed by adoption.  Especially since the kid I was blessed to adopt turned 21 this week.

Twenty -one!

He was only three when I met him, and when I married Karen a year later, Philip was part of the package.  When he was ten, I got to adopt him.

At the adoption hearing, the judge put me on the witness stand.  After I was sworn in, His Honor only had one question: “Why do you want to adopt Philip?”

I didn’t know then that the judge had talked with Karen before the hearing.  He had told her that he would ask me that question.  He wanted her to prep me – to tell me the “right” answer.

“Because I love him.”

But Karen told the judge that prepping was unnecessary.  She was sure I would say the right thing, and she wanted me to have the opportunity to say it – and for Philip to hear it – from my heart.

So, as I sat there on the witness stand pondering the judge’s question, there was more riding on my answer than I knew.

I preach – and write in this blog – pretty openly about the times I don’t get things right in my walk with Christ.  I want to be straight about the forgiven sinner that I am , not some put-on paragon of perfection that I am not.

But this was a time when I got it right.

“Because I love him.”

He may be 21, taller than me, and able to easily beat me in store parking lots when we race to the car (even when I cheat and start running before I say, “Let’s see who gets to the car first”), but I still do.

That love is a reflection of the perfect love my “adoptive Father” has for me.  God adopted me in the waters of baptism.  Jesus surrendered everything so that I could be a child of God.

And I know what Jesus would say if someone asked, “Why?”  Because Jesus always gets it right.

Jesus would most certainly answer, “Because I love him.”