"For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will...in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding... in Him we were also chosen" (Ephesians 1:4,5,7,11a).
One of the many things that I have learned from my online course, "Special Needs" is the importance of people- first language
"He is autistic" as opposed to people-first language, "This is Joey". "He has autism".
or
"She's a downs baby" as opposed to, "She has Down syndrome".
I think the same applies to adoption. "That's the adopted one" as opposed to "She was (past tense) adopted".
We are not defined by medical conditions, special needs, or exceptionalities. As my friend Leah said, "It (adoption or whatever) is part of who they are, but it is not who they are."
Our identity comes from being a chosen child of Christ. As it says it Ephesians 1, through the blood of Christ, we are holy, blameless, redeemed, blessed, chosen, adopted as a child of King, and forgiven. God loves us, accepts us, and includes us in His family. Let's show that same Christ-like love to others and be reminded of Ephesians 1.
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