In love...

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. – Ephesians 1.3-6

…in love having predestined us to adoption as sons…the good pleasure of His will…the praise of His glory…

What amazing words we read here. I feel bad not pausing on every word, but one things really sticks out in my mind. There are two words here that are the focus of why God does what He does. What are these two marvellous words? In love.

God acts in for love for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.’ We love Him because He first loved us. God is love.

His plan, from before everything else and anything else was precipitated on His great love.

In love God predestined that those who put their in Him would be adopted as sons into His family. Adoption is an amazing thing. It is even amazing in human terms. When a couple chooses to adopt a child that child becomes theirs and they become the parents in every sense of the word. Birth certificates can be changed so that the birth parents are replaced by the adoptive parents. Names are changed to reflect the new parentage.

In this case our adoption means that we have been accepted into the family of Jesus, the Beloved, and that His family lasts forever.

In love. Are there two more amazing words in God’s lexicon?