The long wait was finally over. “Gotcha Day” had finally arrived. This was the day the family would add a new member by adopting a little girl. The father, mother and three children walked up the five flights of marble stairs in the Civil Affairs Building and entered a large courtroom. The courtroom was empty except for several rows of chairs.
A few minutes later, the orphanage director and two assistants came into the room, bringing a little, five-year-old Chinese girl with them. The little girl’s name was Ning Kai Lei. She had been given the name by an orphanage worker when she was three months old. “Ning” stood for Ning Bo, the city where she was found as a baby. “Kai Lei” in the Chinese language has the meaning of “beautiful friend.” She had been well taken care of at the orphanage, yet the little girl had never had a family of her own. She had never known the comfort of a mother’s love or the security of having a father to love, protect and provide for her. She had never known what it was like to have brothers and a sister who loved her.
The orphanage director had explained to Ning Kai Lei that she was going to have a new family. The director had shown her pictures of the lady who would be her new mother, the man who would be her new father, the two boys who would be her brothers, and the girl who would be her sister. But she had not met them in person until now.
Ning Kai Lei had a pink backpack strapped to her shoulders. She slipped off the backpack and set it down on one of the chairs. Then, with a little prompting from the orphanage director, she walked over to her new mother and held out her hands the way children all over the world do when they want to be picked up. Her new mother gathered the dear little girl up into her arms and held her close. After a few minutes she was passed around to all the other members of her new family, and each one got to hold her. She repeated the names of all of them in English as they gave her loving hugs.
This is how Ning Kai Lei met her new family. It certainly was a “Gotcha Day.” The parents got a new daughter. The two brothers and sister got a new sister. And Ning Kai Lei got a new family of her very own. Soon she would be brought to her new home.
There will be adjustments and difficult days ahead for Ning Kai Lei and her new family. But there will also be blessings, joy and love too, love that only those who have a family that cares for one another will ever know.
I hope each of you boys and girls has a family who loves you, for nothing else can ever take its place. But I would like to tell you of a love that is even more wonderful. It is the deep, marvelous love that God has for you. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)).
The Lord Jesus is God’s love gift to every person in the world. At Calvary, the Lord Jesus gave up His life so that every person who hears the good news of salvation might believe on Him and be saved from his or her sins. The day a sinner places his trust in the Lord Jesus is a “Gotcha Day” like none other. His sins are removed forever, and he is given the gift of eternal life. “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)). He is adopted into God’s family. “Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:2626For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26)). When a person accepts Christ as his Saviour, the Holy Spirit comes into his heart and teaches him to know God as his Father in a wonderful way. “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:66And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (Galatians 4:6)). He also has the promise of a new home in heaven. “In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2323Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)). These are wonderful gifts that a person could never have until they become one of God’s children.
Just as Ning Kai Lei is now a member of her new, loving family, won’t you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and become a member of God’s loving family? “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that [repents]” (Luke 15:1010Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. (Luke 15:10)).
ML-04/08/2007