Four weeks ago I found myself in court.

Don't worry I hadn't been arrested for crimes against theology.

This was a civic court and I was there to witness something remarkable.

Two Christian friends finalizing the adoption of their dear little two-year-old boy.

I expected it to be a happy occasion.

What I wasn't quite ready for was just how emotional it turned out to be.

The adoptive parents were flanked on one side by the social worker and on the other by the judge,

and as they held their little boy in their arms,

the judge looked at them and asked them these solemn questions.

Do you take Henry to be your son?

Will you be his mom and dad?

And will you love him forever?

I looked sideways at my wife Lee and she too was doing a very bad job of pretending not to cry.

You see, we know these two people very well and we know how humble, kind and loving they are.

So we knew, even if little Henry didn't yet, that Henry has absolutely lucked out. Because of that adoption,

his life will be utterly transformed. In a similar way, we as believers in Christ have also been

grafted into a family that is not ours by birth or by right.

And similarly, the family that we've been grafted into isn't just any family.

It's become a cliche to say, we're all God's children, but actually that is not the case.

Though it's true that God showers many of his blessings universally, it's not true to say that

he adopts everyone into his family. Not everyone can call themselves a child of God,

and for the same reason, not everyone can call God their father. One scholar who studied Jewish antiquity has said that although there

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