An Unlikely Adoption

Imagine that an application is filed by a married couple to adopt a child. The married couple are very low income, without health insurance. They spent years as illegal immigrants. They are poor, uneducated, and live in a small rural location. They have no connections to wealth and power. When the mother gave birth to a child, it was in a barn. The child was born in a feeding trough that had undoubtedly not been properly sanitized. When the birth occurred, the father and mother were surrounded by a rough looking biker gang. Imagine the impression that this couple would make on an agent of the Department of Children Services in Tennessee in connection with their application for adoption.

The couple that I just described is Mary and Joseph. I have thrown in a few anachronisms for good measure (e.g. there was no health insurance in the ancient world). I have also changed the shepherds to a biker gang, since a biker gang is the closest cultural equivalent today to the perception of shepherds in Jesus' time, in my opinion.

Mary and Joseph were simple Jewish Mediterranean peasants. And God chose Mary and Joseph for adoption of His Son, Jesus. God could have chosen to place Jesus with the family of the Chief Priest. God could have chosen to place Jesus with the family of King Herod.

God's decision to place Jesus with Mary and Joseph speaks volumes about what matters to God, and about what does not matter to God. God does not care about earthly wealth, power, and prestige. If God did, God would have chosen to entrust Jesus to Mary and Joseph, and God would not have been revealed in a Jewish Mediterranean peasant named Jesus.

God cares about whether we are people of love, compassion, mercy, faithfulness, and justice. God saw these characteristics in Mary and Joseph. This is how God measures worth. It is how we should measure worth as well.