The Ultimate "Gotcha" Day

In adoption circles ‘gotcha’ days are a day of celebration.  That is the day that the pursuit pays off!  It’s the day the paper chase becomes a memory.  It’s the day it’s official -- a new son, a new daughter is in arms and part of the family!  It marks a new beginning.



Just changed into new clothes, preparing to leave the orphanage forever, December 19, 2006

summer 2010

The excitement of a Gotcha Day is sometimes pretty one-sided through.  Ellie cried, or should I say ‘screamed,’ the entire three-hour van ride to Tirana.  Reni was up crying every 15 minutes that first night. We ached for them as they felt they were losing all that was familiar and any sense of control their little hearts thought they had. They didn’t know they were leaving an orphanage for a home.  They didn’t understand that their status had been changed from orphan to daughter and son. They didn’t know that they had a new inheritance and even a new citizenship. To their understanding, the status quo was where they were comfortable. Remaining hidden in an orphanage was preferable to change.

About 2,000 years ago this weekend the disciples felt much like Reni and Ellie on their first day out of the orphanage. They were hiding together, mourning the loss of the status quo. Before his death, Jesus tried to explain it to his disciples in his last night before his death.

 John 14:3

 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” John 14:23 

All the disciples saw was that Jesus was taken from them. Through crippling fear they mourned the loss of their status quo.

Even after finding the tomb empty, they didn’t get it and tried to return to what they knew.

^… for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes. John 20:9-10 emphasis mine

But Mary stayed and wept. She didn’t understand yet either.

“Woman, why are you weeping?” asked the angels. They knew what had happened!

“Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” asked Jesus. Knowing her broken heart and that she was seeking him!

She still didn’t recognize what had happened. But then Jesus called her by name.

“Mary.”

She suddenly saw clearly! This is exactly what she was seeking! There was no more need for weeping. It was time to rejoice! Mary wanted to hold on, but Jesus had something surprising to say.

¹⁷ Jesus said to her,“Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” ¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her. John 20:17-18 emphasis mine

For the first time in the book of John, Jesus called his disciples ‘brothers’!

For the first time in the book of John, Jesus used the words ‘your Father’!

Relationships had changed! No longer was Jesus just a friend and teacher, He was now a brother. God was no longer ‘the Father’ he was their father!  Upon Christ’s death and resurrection, an adoption had taken place! It was official! God’s pursuit paid off!  It was the ultimate “Gotcha Day”!