In a sixth grade Sunday School class I was teaching we discussed the misery of the Hebrew people when they were slaves in Egypt. “It’s hard for us to understand what it might be like to be a slave, because we don’t own people in America any more.,” I said. A hand shot up and Geoffrey, a red haired boy said, “People can be legally owned here,” he said. “How so?” I asked. “They can be adopted,” he answered. I didn’t want to spend time discussing the difference between adoption and slavery, so I said, “adopted people can’t be bought and sold as slaves are.” I knew he had more to say, but I went on with the lesson.

The very next Sunday I was watching families as they left the church, and Geoffrey walked out between his father and mother, all three with bright red hair. “There’s certainly no mistaking whose boy he is!” I said to another teacher. “Don’t you know?” she asked. “know what?’ I wondered. “He’s adopted. They just signed the final papers at the courthouse,” she said. Geoffrey had wanted nothing more than to be owned by the couple who had adopted him. They certainly looked like a matched set, and were pleasant to see. He had lived with them long enough to know that he wanted to stay.

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit,who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. (1Corinthians 6:19)

Better than anyone else in the classroom, including myself, Geoffrey understood the difference between slavery (being on the “ block” for adoption)and freedom (belonging to a family who loved him) He was emphatic that his parents absolutely owned him, by law. It was essential to him on every level. Better than the rest of us, Geoffrey could understand the covenant that God offered to the Hebrew people: I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God; and you will know that I, the Lord, am your God who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians, (Exodus 6:7)

Geoffrey’s parents offered him love and acceptance and identity, all things God offers to us in the Holy Spirit, and God through Christ offers us a brother through whom we can find fulfillment of our own need for companionship and love. I learned more that day than Geoffrey learned

Love in Him,

Prue