After a couple weeks of running to the mailbox in hopeful anticipation, I was delighted on Friday to find our Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application For Advance Process of Orphan Petition from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services!! It is a page that we will take with us when we travel to Ethiopia to bring home our baby. It’s a long title for a paper that will essentially allow various officials (US Embassy in Ethiopia, airport checkpoints, Homeland Security, US Immigration) to say, “On her own, she doesn’t qualify...she’s not a citizen, she doesn’t meet the necessary requirements to enter the country, but we’ve checked out the people with whom this little one is coming home. We know and can vouch for the two people who are traveling with her (they’ve been through the proverbial “ringer”), and if they say she is theirs and she belongs here with them, then she’s cool.” And then, just like that, it won’t matter that she doesn’t bear official government-issued identification, a US birth certificate, or a passport, just as long as she’s with us.
This process begs the comparison to what Jesus Christ does for us, as believers. On our own, we have no place in heaven. None of us qualify or meet the entrance requirements (of holy perfection). Apart from Jesus, our citizenship most certainly lies right here on this fallen earth, and we stand no chance of success when facing the judgment seat of Almighty God. However, for those of us who love and serve Jesus, the Son steps in on our behalf (and this is the beautiful, merciful, unbelievable part) and says to the Father, “She’s one of mine. She belongs here with Us. She’s cool.” And then, just like that, our failures, our misdeeds, and our lack of merit matters not, just as long as we’re with the One.
Sarah
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