Lent Photo Project, Day 1: Covenant

 ... remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:12-13)

In Ephesians 2, Paul is telling his Gentile readers that they now belong to the family of God, that the Jews are no longer his only heirs, and that the Gentiles and the Jews together are part of the growing church, with Jesus as the cornerstone uniting them. What a gift it is to know that we Gentiles have been included in God's great plan of redemption. The old covenant was available to only a few; the new covenant to all who have faith, and this privilege was bought with the blood of Christ. I am so thankful to have found my way back to faith after so many years away from it.

I have no eye for decorating! All decorative items also came from my mom's house.

This dining room set belonged to my paternal grandparents. It's been in my mom's house for years, and now it's mine--in fact, we just moved it into our house today.

Because I'm an adoptee, the whole idea of being "brought near" to God and adopted into His family has a special meaning. I know what it is to be adopted into a family and to get all of the privileges of being in that family--through no effort of my own. And one of those privileges is this older-than-me dining room set, which takes me back to a time when the table and buffet were taller than me, and the china cabinet seemed like a tall monster in my grandmother's dark dining room (which they rarely used).

Today, the first day of Lent, I'm thankful for God's grace, for the 17-year-old girl who gave me up 51 years ago this week, and for the unearned privilege of belonging to both my earthly families (adopted and biological) and God's heavenly one.