Spiritual Perspectives
Adoption is a Wonderful and Powerful Thing

By Carol Bremer-Bennett
Special to The Independent

How blessed is God! Long before He laid down earth's foundations, He had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love. Long, long ago He decided to adopt us into His family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure He took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of His lavish gift giving by the hand of His beloved Son.

— Ephesians 1:3-6
(from the Message version of the Bible)

Recently my daughter took her turn at leading devotions for her class. She decided on the topic of adoption, "Because," she said, "it is such a wonderful and powerful thing." My daughter is right. Both she and I know that power and wonder, since we are both adopted.

I am proud that my daughter is thinking about what it means to be adopted and sharing her thoughts with those around her. Some people who are adopted struggle with identity: they ask the tough question of "Who am I?" over and over again. This is understandable, yet I never went through great turmoil as I considered my adoption perhaps it was because I was so firmly grounded in my first adoption by God and knew that everyone around me also was adopted and a chosen child. Through faith, I knew that my true identity lay in being a daughter of God, not in my genetics and not in my upbringing.

Throughout my life, I was blessed by knowing that my identity was as an adopted child of God. In my life, God revealed His promises, His love for me through a covenant community. We do not live our lives in isolation, we are here to be in relationship with one another and be impacted through those relationships. Today I wish to honor those who have been my family when I have known no other:

• My parents, who stepped out in faith and let God bless them with Carol Joy,
  
  
• My grandparents who taught me that the simplicity of living life richly can best be experienced in a farmhouse kitchen,
  
  
• My middle school social studies teacher, Roy DeBoer, who was the first teacher that I heard say Columbus Day may not be something for everyone to celebrate,
  
  
• A Navajo art teacher, named Elmer Yazzie, who told me that I would always be welcome on the Navajo reservation,
  
  
• The Tammingas, the Pikaarts, and Nella Veenstra who welcomed me into their homes when I wandered into this area we call the Southwest,
  
  
• Bob Ippel and Gail DeYoung, two outstanding teachers who have taught me to celebrate every child and to never stop creating new ideas,
  
  
• Ted Charles, my brother, whose simple invitation into his family changed the ground that I walk on,
  
  
• Ron Polinder, who has taught me to learn every child's family tree, so that you know who is related to whom and which auntie has just walked into your office,
  
  
• Lorretta Smith, who has shown me that to truly understand someone, you need to be in their living room, speaking in their first language,
  
  
• Ren and Elsa, who challenged me to petition God with conviction whether it was the first time asking or the 40th, and to trust Him enough to step aside and let God do the impossible,
  
  
• Jenny, Verlena, Autumn, LaShanda the young women and girls who have slept on my couch or lived in my basement, who taught me the blessing of always having room for one more,
  
  
• John Lee, who walks and prays in the hills around Rehoboth every morning perhaps today he was using his grandfather's wisdom, and praying, "Help us not to get ahead of you, Jesus. Just let us follow you, lead us, and guide us."

These are my neighbors young and old, poor and rich, strong and weak from all walks of life, all colors. This is the family of God to me my own personal rainbow, my covenant community yet they all started out at the exactly the same point I my life. They were strangers foreign and unknown to me. But I would not be even half the person that I am today indeed, I would not even be here today if they had remained a stranger to me.

This is our call, to adopt one another, as God has adopted us to love and cry, to struggle and laugh with one another, as His beautiful family. Let us all rejoice in the fact that we call God, "Abba," "Father," "Daddy," and that He has adopted us as His own children.

Carol Bremer-Bennett is the principal at Rehoboth Christian Middle School. She can be contacted at cbremerbennett@rcsnm.org.

This column is the result of a desire by community members, representing different faith communities, to share their ideas about bringing a spiritual perspective into our daily lives and community issues.

For information about contributing a guest column, contact Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola at the Independent: (505) 863-8611, ext. 218 or lizreligion01@yahoo.com.