Outrageous Love

Many people have asked us why we wanted to adopt, especially since we were so close to being empty-nesters. Mark and I were in the midst of season of laying everything down before God. We were wiling to do whatever it was that He had in mind for us. We were willing to pray outrageous prayers..."We are willing, Lord, show us what you have for us." That can be a hard thing when you recognize there is a cost to be paid for praying such a prayer.

We didn't adopt because we wanted a warm-fuzzy, fairy-tale experience. We weren't looking for another child to fulfill an unmet need or emotion. We weren't hoping for love and gratitude to pelt us in return from our adopted child. We weren't looking for a return at all. We were simply doing what we felt God had called us to do.

We knew of Luke, his issues, his vast emotional wounds and what it might look like to bring him fully into our family. We way underestimated the work, the discouragement, the investment and the blessings.

Mark claimed Luke as his own from the beginning. He looked past all the behavior issues, the emotional instability, the physical problems...Mark had an outrageous love for a little boy that most had deemed quite unworthy of adoption, of a chance, of redemption.

Luke used to feel that his new life was just too good to be true. He was just waiting to be tossed away, again. He lived believing that at any moment, we'd get tired of his ways. Oh, how he tested us in those ways. It didn't work. Luke couldn't thwart our love for him. He didn't trust that his father had his best interest in mind and did what was most loving to him.

Often in the early days after Luke knew enough English he would tell us that he didn't know why we chose him, and how could it be that we loved him - when we didn't even know him. We explained to him, that we loved him because God placed him in our heart. Luke's earthly father loved him before Luke even knew of him.

Luke has been redeemed with an outrageous love! Adoption so looks like our adoption into God's family. Though it pales in comparison to the outrageous love that Christ showed on the cross, it is a beautiful example of our Heavenly Father claiming us as His own - loving us before we even knew Him, that He always does what is most loving for us. There is no way we could ever repay God for this most glorious gift - He doesn't want us to even try! God is after a relationship with us - one of intimacy, trust and obedience. It isn't a relationship of doing to please Him - of earning His love, because we can't! That is why God's love is so outrageous! It seems too good to be true. But, beloved child of God it is real and God desires it is so very real to you!

I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. Jeremiah 31:3b