Adoption vertically and horizontally!

I've been reading a book called "Heirs with Christ". An old friend who found out we were adopting bought this for us to read! I LOVE what someone wrote in the forward. I absolutely LOVE how this guy explains this, check it out below!

"Earthly adoption is horizontal. It is one human being establishing a relationship with another human being. Heavenly adoption is vertical. It is the eternal God graciously establishing a relationship with fallen human beings, creatures who are by nature "children of disobedience" (eph.2:2). God is an adoptive Father. Jesus, our Elder Brother, is God the Father's eternal, only-begotten, natural Son. We believers are His children through adoption. This identity is central to who we are. As adopted children, we enjoy all the rights and privileges of the relationship that God the Father enjoys with His eternal Son. This is an AMAZING reality and eternal privilege. Adoption is heavenly before it is earthly. One is what God does; the other is what we do. Adoption is something God has done and is doing before it is something we have done and are doing. Adoption was invented by God even before He created the world. Adoption is how God brings us into His family." ~Dan Cruver co-founder of Together for Adoption

I LOVE this! I love how before Jim and I ever even thought about adoption, before we were even formed in our mothers womb, before the creation of the world...God was already thinking about adoption. God's eternal plan INVOLVES ADOPTION! How awesome is that! I've known these truths my whole life, I've known the scriptures concerning adoption but now that God has called Jim and I to adoption, He is making it come alive for me and opening our eyes up to the BIG picture of adoption! It's beautiful!

I have been adopted and I am forever grateful and I look forward to God uniting Jim and I with our first child over in Uganda! She will be adopted by us and I pray one day she will receive God's free gift of salvation and become adopted once again but this time forever into the family of God!

Love to all,