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“He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will”
– Ephesians 1:5

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

Sometimes we can fear asking big, hard questions for fear of what the answer will be, either from ourselves or from God.

But God can handle our most complicated wonderings. Why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing? What is worth my time and energy?

Like with most things in life, it takes the hard press of our temporary situation on earth to help us face these uncertainties and commit to looking for answers.

Nancy did this when her adoptive mother became terminally ill.

Nancy had always known she was adopted. When her adoptive mother became sick, she suddenly felt the need to know more and was confronted with questions about life, death, and eternity. “That brought my mortality into focus,” Nancy remembers. “I had an emptiness inside that nothing seemed to fill.”

These questions about herself and her family sent her looking for answers, both to know her birth parents and to understand more about her own soul. Her adoptive mother told Nancy everything she could about her birth mother, but it wasn’t much. She repeatedly came up against dead ends in finding her parents.

Around the same time, she was invited to a Women’s Connection luncheon where she heard a speaker ask, “I know when I die, I have a place reserved for me in heaven. Do you know where you’re going?”

Nancy realized she did not have that same assurance, but she wanted to know more.

The speaker clearly explained that it was through faith in Jesus Christ that Nancy could accept the free gift of salvation, securing that place in heaven for herself. She knew that this answered one of her burning questions about death and eternity.

Nancy then came to learn she had been adopted into God’s family, and this provided immeasurable peace.

Her adoptive mother did pass away, and though Nancy had new peace in her relationship with Jesus Christ, she still longed to connect with her birth parents. Slowly but surely, without the help of the internet being invented yet, she followed paper trails until she found her birth father, and they reconnected.

It was through him that she found out her mother’s name was wrong on her birth certificate. It was a turning point in her search.

With some time to spare before a speaking engagement, Nancy went to the local library where she knew her parents had gone to high school. Armed with her mother’s real name, she pulled out the local yearbooks and started hunting. While she sat at the table flipping pages, a man stopped and asked her if she had gone to school in that town. Nancy explained what she was looking for, and he handed her his card and said he’d be happy to help if she couldn’t find what she was looking for.

Nancy did call this stranger and was finally connected with her birth mother.

She marveled at how God had orchestrated just the right person in that library to help her find her mom. She now had more family than she knew what to do with: her adoptive family, her birth family, and the family of God.

Nancy went from questioning her own mortality and future to being surrounded by God’s love and hope. Her questions, based on fear and uncertainty, could only be answered by God, who knew she needed to meet Him before she met her birth parents. Her hope and ability to look at eternity with confidence were from Him alone. Nancy has shared her story dozens, if not hundreds, of times with others so that they, too, can experience the hope she found. It all started with questions that only He could answer.

So all those big, hard, and unsettling questions? He can and wants to answer.

Just like Nancy came to have abundance in her question of family, we, too, can find abundant hope when we take our questions to God.

Ask

Have you ever had someone ask you big questions about eternity and purpose? How have you answered?

Pray

God, give me the words and wisdom when confronted by others’ questions about life and death. Help me to express my confident hope in You alone.

Sow

Consider what gives you hope when facing your own mortality. Find two verses that speak to this and memorize them, so you are ready with an answer for those asking the same questions.