What kind of child are you?

As you have read, we challenged the young people at the youth weekend in Maastricht to read one of the gospels during October. I am reading through the gospel according to John.

‘Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or of a husband’s will, but born of God.’ (John 1:12-13)

I was supposed to be a girl. That was the plan. My sister is the oldest, then my older brother. So the plan was to have another girl and then a boy, making the perfect family of four kids, two boys and two girls. Of course, I was not a girl. And the next several tries for that girl also never panned out. I am one of 5 brothers, with my sister as the lone sister and oldest.

But that was the plan. My parents had a plan. They decided to have me. That in itself is a wonderful thought. There are plenty of people who only ‘plan’ on having sex, fulfilling themselves. A child is an unwanted, unforeseen (really?) consequence that needs to be dealt with. I was desired. And loved. And cared for. But I did not choose to be here. Someone else made that choice.

John tells us something amazing. Did you catch it? To be a child of God (the Creator of heaven and earth, the Eternal, the Almighty, the Loving One), I can be born. It is no one else’s decision and no one else can do it for me. There is no person who can make you a Christian, deciding for you that you will have wanted to make that choice.

But I can. I can decide to receive him, believe in his name. Then I have a right to become a child of God. I can choose this wonderful Father, because He has chosen me. And He has chosen you. Will I simply stand outside, accept being only a child of my parents, or will I accept the invitation to be a child of God? You see, I am both. God allowed me to be born into the family my parents ‘planned’. And then He invited me into His family. I am formed by both. And God makes both situations glorious, because He is this wonderful Father, able to turn even the worst situation into a victory.

What kind of child are you? Will you be His child?