Eastertide

May 21, 2021

Scripture Reading: Romans 8:12-17
So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our Spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

I enjoy the Finding Your Roots program on PBS. That should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me and my fascination with genealogy. Tracing the ancestry of slaves in the USA gets dicey before the Civil War because they were most often treated as animals in formal documents with no names listed. Their age, sex, and financial worth are usually all that is recorded. Occasionally, searchers are surprised to find where a slave owner had legally freed a slave. Even rarer, following the Civil War, some slave owners deeded land to former slaves to start them on their way to self-sufficiency like they would their child. I thought of that when I read this sentence in the above scripture: For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption.

There is something incredibly special about adoption. Perhaps the circumstances of needing to be adopted are painful, but having parents seal their acceptance and love for one by their choice through adoption is life-changing. As Paul describes it here, God’s gift of the Holy Spirit is that seal of acceptance. Some come to accept the love of God from a loving family with God as its center. Others stumble into discovering God in a drug treatment center or prison or a sudden realization that living the good life is not living much at all. God accepts us as we are, adopts us, and blesses us with the presence of that Spirit. We may not know what the next moment may bring, but we will always know God will be with us no matter what.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for accepting us just as we are and providing the guidance we need to become all that we can be. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.