Encouragement

---

An old news item came my way via the local paper* recently. Ian Lewis, of Lancashire, England, spent 30 years tracing his family tree back to the 1600’s. In the process, he interviewed around 2000 of his relatives, gathering research for a book that would relate how his grandfather left England to seek his fortune in Russia, his adventures there, and his departure around the time of the revolution. Then he discovered a little fact that shed a different light on his years of labour: he found he had been adopted when he was a month old, and his real name was David Thornton.

Wow...!

The questions need to be asked: Out of 2000 of his relatives, surely one of them would have known that he was adopted. Why didn’t someone tell him sooner? Does David Thornton now feel like everyone is laughing at him behind his back? What is his feeling towards the Lewis family now? And would he start research all over again – this time, on the Thornton family tree?

One consolation could be offered to David – despite his confusion about his roots here on earth, he can be assured that whatever his name, God knows him intimately and calls him one of His sons. Whatever background David learns of himself and his family, the irrevocable fact is that God has always lovingly seen David Thornton as His child. Even if David can never trace his birth mother, he knows that his Heavenly Father created his ‘inmost being’ in his mother’s womb (see Psalm 139:13).

What a lesson for us! We can also spend 40 years of our life believing something about ourselves which isn’t true. We could be fooled into thinking we are worthless, when we are priceless in God’s eyes. We might think that others are better than us according to the world’s standards, but God says that we are all His favoured children. (1 John 3:1) What a joy to be part of God’s family!




* Quoted in the Southern Free Times, Warwick (Qld, Australia), from the Western Morning News (28 September 1994)

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE