I Felt This Kid’s Tweet

I have grandparent issues.

One set of grandparents were great, but they smoked and drank a lot—so they died way too early.

I wish they could have been at my college graduation, attended my wedding, and met Ashah—their great granddaughter.

The other set of grandparents disowned my family when I was 9 years old. They’ve had nothing to do with us ever since.

That’s always been painful—a sore spot in my family life.

Like I said, I have grandparent issues.

I admit it, I’m scarred.

I am afraid of grumpy old people, because to me, it represents more rejection—and I’ve had enough of that.

I find myself being drawn to happy old people. I want them to adopt me.

That’s why I felt this kid’s tweet when I saw it the other day…

Elyjah Hamilton, a young man in our church, tweeted:

“I really wish I had a grandma and grandpa… I’ll never kno what it feels like to have that… #familyproblems.” 8:59AM Aug 28

Elyjah’s tweet reminded me…

There are lots of people with grandparent, parent, sibling, and family issues.

Lots of people who have experienced rejection.

Lots of people who need to know what real family—the way God intended it—feels like.

Lots of people who are waiting to be adopted into a healthy, happy, whole family.

The Bible says, “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family… This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” (Ephesians 1.5 NLT)

Another translation says it was his “purpose and pleasure” to adopt us.

I like that.

And since we’re part of God’s family now, his purpose is our purpose—and his pleasure is our pleasure.

In other words, our mission is to add to the family…

And we’re not reluctant to do it—we’re happy to do it!

We adopt.

We’re always ready for new family members.

We are all about enlarging our circle of love.

We invite, welcome, initiate, accept, include, add, involve, and adopt new family members.

We love, because He first loved us. (1 John 4.19)