Dressed in a trailing, lacey white gown, the baby lay sweetly in the arms of her father. With her mother at her side, the seven-month-old child slept peacefully through her christening. No ordinary girl, she is a Dutch princess. Gazing at her photograph in the newspaper, I wondered at the odds of being born to a king.
Every day about 365,000 newborns enter our world. In one year, that adds up to over 130 million. Kings and queens who rule major countries today number—twelve! The chances of being born to a royal seem miniscule.
Two months later, another couple’s photo appeared in the newspaper—the chancellor of Germany and his wife. They had adopted a three-year-old Russian girl. Every year some 15,000 Russian children find welcoming homes. The cost of adopting one, including travel, can reach huge sums, up to $25,000. What are the odds of being adopted by a wealthy world leader, I mused.
Laying chance, luck and good fortune on a baby scale, I suddenly realized their lightness compared to God’s sovereign will and loving plan. We who have believed in Christ are born anew, not of a world leader, but of God, Ruler of the Universe. John 1:12 says,
Yet to all who received him (Jesus), to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Apostle John shouts joyfully about this when he writes, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1John 3:1).
In addition to our heavenly birth, we are also adopted into God’s royal family. God especially chose us from the beginning of time and paid a great price to redeem us through the shed blood of His Son. The apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 1: 4-6:
In love he (God) predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Though impressed at the privileged future of the Dutch princess and the German ruler’s daughter, I see my own heritage as a far greater blessing. I am a daughter of the Ruler of the Universe, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And millennia before I was even born, I was adopted by a God of Love.
Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, our Heavenly Father made sure the chances of royal birth—for all who believe His Word—are excellent.