Of Baby Girl Auldridge and the Glory of God in Salvation

Somewhere in Panama lies a tiny, brown baby girl. You have never seen her; in fact, not many people even know she’s alive. She has a name, but even fewer people know it. For now, we’ll call her Mariposa. She has recently been brought to a poor orphanage where a few adults will try to care for the dozens of children that have been brought to them by parents who either didn’t want to provide for their children, or simply couldn’t. Around Mariposa are several other children and infants, all in the same position. There is nothing particularly special about this baby; nothing that sets her apart from the other orphans. The older ones knowingly long to be out of the place, in a warm home with loving parents, but Mariposa only cries as any baby would- longing to be held. There is, however, something that sets this baby apart; something outside of herself. Thousands of miles away is a young family of five who are also longing- longing to hold a small girl and call her by their family name. Before Mariposa was even born, this family started the process to be able to adopt her. They will pay a great cost to be able to get her, and will have to travel to a foreign nation; a place of great poverty and crime, in order to bring her to their home. They have filled out a lot of paper work, and are waiting for the day that they can go and pick her up. Mariposa, of course, is unaware of all of this. She simply lies crying, eating, and sleeping. Sometime in the next year or two, the family will come to her country and pick her up; loving her as their very own child. She will fly back with them and be given the family name. No longer will she be a foreigner in this country, but will be made a citizen with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities that go with it. She will also inherit new relatives, a large family of people that already love her; though, they don’t yet know her. There is great anticipation for the time when all of these things will happen; but, again, Mariposa simply lies there crying, eating, and sleeping.

This real story is instructive to us of our own adoption. The Bible tells us that we, like Mariposa, were born into a hurting and dying world, alienated from our Creator, longing for meaning and love; yet, not finding fulfillment in anything around us. Like her, we were born knowing that things weren’t right, but having no clue what we really needed. We simply lie, eat, and sleep; but God, who is rich in mercy has been working since before we were born. In fact, He has been working since before anyone was born. Ephesians 1:4-6 says that God “chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world…In love he predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His Will and Pleasure – to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.” So, before anything was ever created God had a perfect knowledge of His children and determined that He would bring them redemption in Christ so that they could become His children. There are several places in Scripture that refer to salvation as “adoption.” It is a very fitting image because it refers to the reality that happens in salvation. It makes people who were strangers of God into His children. As 1 Peter 2:10 says, “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” We were transferred out of one Kingdom, and became citizens of a new Kingdom, the Kingdom of the Son of God’s love (Col. 1:13). Or, as 1 Peter says, we were taken out of darkness and into His marvelous light. This adoption is confirmed to us by the Holy Spirit who gives us a spirit of adoption by which we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ (Romans 8:15). This great mercy bestowed upon us should make us proclaim, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). Like Mariposa, we will receive the name of our new Father (Rev. 22:4), and be in a new family (Eph. 3:15). Like Mariposa, too, none of this was of our doing. It was God who took the initiative in our salvation; He was the one who came to the foreign land to claim us as His own. Like Mariposa, there was nothing particularly special about us. In fact, the Bible says that “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him,” (1 Cor. 1:27-29). It wasn’t that we were desiring this adoption more than others; we, like Mariposa, simply lie there, crying, eating, and sleeping. So then, it was nothing in ourselves, that made us children of God; simply God’s great mercy, “according to his good Will and Pleasure” (Eph. 1:6). Just as we loved Mariposa before she was born, so God loved us, with a great, salvific love before we were born; this is what the Scriptures mean when they say God “foreknew” us. He knew us in a special, loving way before the creation of the world. He loved us in such a way that He would do everything necessary, even paying the greatest price, in order to make us His children. He would bring us out of one Kingdom, and make us citizens of a greater Kingdom. We have an illustration of this whole process in nature. We see the caterpillar, limited in his ability, small and lowly; but transformed into something new and beautiful and great- the butterfly; or, what the Spanish call a “Mariposa.”