We are reading Brennan Manning's devotional "Reflections for Ragamuffins" at our church. This blog is meant to create a sense of conversation for us, as we read this together. This is a reflection based on today's (July 2) reading.
If there is any 'advantage' of being adopted -- I am told by my friends who have experienced it first hand -- is the sense that one was 'chosen'. I saw you, and I chose you. Of all the kids in the world, I chose you. Set aside whatever conflicting motives that our consumerist culture might read into this for now. Because love experienced at its deepest always involves this awareness that it is not something we have to do, but something we desire to do.
So today's reading was a simple one, whose title is also an apt summary: "He chose us." God chose us to be His, and even more so, His adopted children. (Ephesians 1:3-4) A rather gigantic statement. God in His infinite freedom, chose us. With no ability to offer God anything, with no guarantees of our affection, God chose us. That's a pretty big deal.
Manning doesn't stop there though. And then he dares to categorize us in the following groups:
1. We don't know it.
2. We know it but don't accept it.
3. We accept it but are not in touch with it.
4. We are in touch with it but don't surrender to it.
Which category describes you? And what would it look like, if we did "surrender" to the truth that God chose us?
