Timing can make a big difference, right? A snowstorm can seem far more beautiful on a day when you were already planning to be home. That item you needed goes on sale just days after you purchase it. You really want to talk to a parent and share something significant about their child and they stop in at the end of the day.

Timing can make a big difference. Back in the Garden of Eden, God promised he would send his Son to be the Savior of the world. From that day forward, God’s people were watching and waiting. Will it be today? This month? This year? In my lifetime? Centuries went by before God determined that “the time had fully come.” While the prophets told about it long before Jesus was born, God’s timing came about in such an unexpected way by our thinking.

First—he was born of an ordinary woman, chosen by God.

Second—our verses for today say that he was “born under the law.” That means that God’s Son, to fulfill the promise God made in the Garden, had to keep every law of God. He had to be living perfectly in tune with God’s will.

Third—Why? Why did God do all this? For you. For me. For countless others. He did this out of love so that we could be adopted as God’s dear child. Being adopted is a big deal. Adopted as God’s child? An immeasurable blessing. Being part of a family is amazing. Being chosen by God to be a member of his family…indescribable!

That blessing includes the peace we have in knowing that we are saved by God’s grace. The promise that we can spend eternity in heaven is fulfilled. Like a son or daughter in an earthly sense, we can’t do anything to make the adoption happen. God’s Spirit fills our hearts with faith and we are heirs with the inheritance being the gift of eternal life with him in heaven. Because of Jesus, we can say, “Abba, Father.” We can go to God, our Father, as his child.

As the ambiance of Christmas begins to fade in the world around you, stop and ponder today’s reading. Through the faith-work of the Holy Spirit and Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection, you are God’s child, his family. You are dearly loved, bought at a great price in Jesus, and an heir of eternity.