A young couple I know recently adopted a child from overseas. To say that it was a struggle is an understatement. Pair the moving parts and red tape of an international adoption with the curveballs of COVID-19 and you get a frustrating, drawn-out adoption process that was a true test of faith.

So why did this young couple choose to adopt? Because they had love to give. They were saying to their adopted child, “We love you as our own. We choose to love you forever.”

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that love isn’t just a feeling—love is also a choice. And even before he called the universe into being, God chose to love us. He assures us, “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3). 

Sometimes it’s hard to understand why God chooses to love us, because we aren’t very lovable, are we? On a daily—hourly—minute-by-minute basis we fail him. We stomp on his love. We deliberately do things we know we shouldn’t, like the defiant toddler who scribbles all over freshly painted walls with a permanent Sharpie.

But instead of seeing the dark scribbles of wrongdoing that cover our hearts, God sees only our whitewashed souls—souls made pristine through the cleansing blood of Jesus. You see, “in love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:4,5). He chooses you, friend. You are his adored child through eternity.