Love that Adopts

Last night I went to see the movie "Born to Be Wild," a recently released documentary that tells the story of two special women in two very different parts of the world who have dedicated their lives to saving endangered species, one animal at a time. Raised in Kenya, Daphne Sheldrick has been rescuing elephants orphaned by poaching for half a century. The only person to have successfully raised an orphan elephant in captivity, Daphne has created a nursery where orphans can be nourished and loved, so that one day they can be released into the wild where they belong.

Working on the other side of the world in the rainforests of Borneo, Indonesia, is Dr. Birute Galdikas, who has spent several decades working to rescue and rehabilitate orangutans orphaned by the destruction of the forests. Dr. Galdikas and her team care for the orphans with painstaking effort, in order to release them back into the wild when they are ready to care for themselves.

The love the women and their co-workers have for these animals is amazing: from singing a baby orangutan to sleep to rubbing sunscreen on the ears of a baby elephant to prevent sunburn (I didn't know elephants could get sunburn!), their dedication to the welfare of the animals knows no limit. These people love the orphaned animals enough to adopt them, but they never withhold from the animals the freedom that is theirs by nature. Indeed, it is to give the animals their freedom in the wild that Daphne and Dr. Galdikas adopt them in the first place!

I cannot help but compare this lavish and almost unbelievable love to the love of God, who adopts us--as helpless orphans--into His family, to love, to nourish, and ultimately to give us freedom.

"The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.'" -Romans 8:5

God completed the hard work of our adoption by sending His son to die on our behalf, that we might enter His holy presence without fear. But we are not adopted into the family of God to become obedient robots, or puppets to do His bidding. God loves us with a pure and unselfish love. He wants what is best for us, but loves us enough to give us freedom. Not wanting to force us into anything, God gives us freedom to choose if we will accept the gift of grace He freely offers. God loves us fiercely, protectively, but never coercively. Those who use this freedom to accept the gift offered by the Lord of Grace find ultimate freedom as they do so:

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." (Galations 5:1)