“We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:2-4
Many of us have an innate dislike of change in our lives – especially when not much is known about what is coming. We tend to prefer our familiar circumstances even when the change might lead to something much more wonderful so I’m still amazed when I recall how Adina wholeheartedly embraced her new life when we adopted her.
She was just 3 years old and had spent her entire life in a threadbare orphanage in a small town in Romania when we came to get her. The staff seemed to genuinely care for the multitude of small children under their care but there was no money for anything beyond basic needs. The little that they did have was entirely communal. Adina owned nothing she could call her own – not even a pair of shoes. As far as I could tell, her entire world up to the day we came for her existed within the walls and fenced yard of the orphanage. She spoke no English (and we spoke no Romanian) and she had never seen us before in her life. Despite all this, she met us on the steps outside with hugs and kisses as if she’d been waiting for us all her life. She happily gave us a tour of the facility but she clearly was ready to go. She cried when we asked her to pose for a picture on her little bed – she was afraid if she took a nap we’d leave without her. When the time came to leave, she went with us out the gate smiling and never looked back. She wouldn’t tell us the names of any of her friends from the orphanage except for a boy who was adopted at the same time she was. She refused even to speak the language when we got home and a lady in our town who spoke Romanian wanted to talk to her. She fully, completely, and forever left her old life behind and embraced the new life we’d given her.
Spiritually, we should all be like Adina in embracing our new lives in Christ. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior, we put to death our old, sinful self. When we put our old, sinful, selfish life to death, we should stop speaking the language of the world and living in accordance with the world’s standards. We should leave it behind as completely as Adina left her early life in Romania behind.
Devotional and photo b
y Bob McCoy
about these things 