Meet Wesley Chick

Many people know this about me through my testimony on the website for re:generation, Watermark's recovery ministry. I am adopted. My mother divorced my birth father after suffering physical abuse. Then she allowed my stepfather to adopt me when I was 7. My entire name was changed. I had a new identity. I had a chance to have a new life with a new dad who would love me, care for me, and call me his own. But what did I do instead? I rejected him. I grew bitter inside toward him and thought that my ways were better than his. I could do life on my own without his leadership and without his perceived knowledge of the world. I even went so far as to cut off all ties and communication with him in my late 30s/early 40s, only to reconcile with him two months before God took him home.

In this passage, Paul speaks about how his fellow Israelite brothers were given the gift of adoption from the almighty God and have favor from the only Father who could give them eternal life. Yet what did they do? They rejected Him and His Son Jesus Christ, who was from their race, was crucified, and was raised from the dead to give eternal life to all who believe in Him. They turned away from the very Father who adopted them and called them His own. Thankfully, we have a Father in heaven who loves us so very much that He forgives us when we turn away from Him and toward our selfish sinful natures that tell us we can do this life on our own terms. I have tried that life. It did not work out so well for me. I came to the end of myself and turned toward the only true God who loved me, gave me hope for a future, and forgave me for everything I had done that was leading me straight down a path toward eternal death.

He adopted me. He embraced me. He forgave me. He called me His own.