Wise words from a friend

I wanted to share with you all a comment I got on the blog from a very close friend who grew up in the faith spending summers and even an internship at SWO.  Many of you know Corey and Racheal and even their awesome kids.  They are veteran missionaries who are like family to us and most all of the full-time SWO staff.  Corey’s words put things in a deeper perspective than I had ever considered.  It is powerful, and I wanted to share it with you.

Before I was engaged, I knew about Christ's love for us, His Bride; but when Racheal accepted my proposal and I entered that covenant with her, I experienced for the first time a relational comprehension of what it means to love a bride sacrificially. The same was true the first time we had children: I experienced a father's love for a child, one that I know about and fully believed of Father God, but finally had a much deeper comprehension of that love. I imagine you (Brody) experienced the same phenomenon with Little and Kilby.  Now with JuJu and Elliot, I can only imagine you are again crossing from a sincere belief in our adoptive status with Abba into an experiential understanding of what Abba was willing to do to ransom us from our depravity.

We can only speculate what future awaited these two souls had they not been adopted by the Holloways.  They were chosen (elected) and destined for adoption as "hiouses" (not mere teknons).  This process would not have happened without you orchestrating it (sovereignty), but somehow also in the courtroom where JuJu pointed to the family she wants to be with (free will) was an essential part of her adoption.  And though not to the eternal degree that we know in salvation, but somehow like God giving us this Spirit of adoption, so now JuJu and Elliot will not have to grow up in the sins of their fathers, falling into a life of abuse, neglect, malnourishment, following the societal norms of promiscuity, deception, greed, corruption, and drunkenness.  Now as a family, the Holloway family of seven gets to raise an Ebenezer in the midst of all the paperwork and politics — one that says this is how far JuJu and Elliot have come, and there is no turning back.  Then they will be raised in a family bent on serving the Lord and seeking Him.  JuJu and Elliot will, no doubt, learn of His Gospel and His heart for the nations.  It is a remarkable thing that, though I have never experienced it in the natural world, I can only imagine this earthly adoption will greatly deepen your understanding of your own adoption into the family of Abba God.