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Catechism #2

Question: What does it mean to be a child of God?
Answer: That I belong to God who loves me.

Last week’s question showed that we become children of God through adoption. Wouldn’t you say that adoptive parents do what they do out of love?

Waking up with a newborn at night is difficult with your biological child; how much more love would it require doing that with one who is not your flesh and blood? The same can be said of all the trying things that children do.

Children certainly are not cheap. Raising a child for 18 years costs Americans an average of $241,000. Add to that the average cost of adoption, which is another $30,000.

People do not adopt on a whim; adoption is not done for luxury. Those who choose to adopt are motivated by a heart of love for the child. They commit to care for that child for the rest of her life.

The children who are adopted are totally at the mercy of the adoptive parents; without them, the children remain orphaned and not belonging to a “forever family.”

Try to imagine yourself in the tattered shoes of an orphan, wandering through life essentially on your own. And then one day the social worker tells you that you have been chosen—that someone is taking you home to be a loved member of their family.

That is exactly what God does for us. That is what it means to belong to a God that loves you. Jesus told the disciples in John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you…”

Being adopted by God makes us rightful heirs. Romans 8:16-17 teaches “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Instead of receiving our inheritance after the Father dies, we receive it after we die.


Aren’t you glad that the God of the universe chose to love you and adopt you as His own child?

(You can read previous questions by clicking the word catechism in blue by the word Labels)


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