Our daughter, Talitha, is a human being. Only one thing greater
could be said of her. I pray daily that it will be said, namely,
that she is reconciled to God through Christ. That is one truth.
Talitha is a human being.

Our daughter, Talitha, is adopted. That is another truth.

These two truths are profound in our minds as we love her. The
first truth is breathtaking. Genesis 1:27 says, "God created man in
His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female
He created them." To be a human being is to be in the image of God.
What does it mean to have a child in the image of God? Gustav
Oehler put it like this in 1873:

The creating God does not reach the goal of His creation until
He has set over against Him His image in man. From this last fact
it is plain that the self-revelation of God, the unveiling of His
being, is the final end of the creation of the world; or, to
express it more generally, that the whole world serves to reveal
the divine glory, and is thereby the object of divine joy.
(Theology of the Old Testament [Minneapolis: Klock and Klock
Christian Publishers, 1978], p. 121)

Talitha is part of God's purpose to "reveal the divine glory,
and is thereby the object of divine joy." Nothing greater can be
said of her. By comparison to this truth, race - whether red,
yellow, black, brown or white - is as nothing. It is not nothing.
But if we could only feel the weight of what it means for her to be
created in the image of God, we would see that human personhood is
to racial identity as the sun is to a candle, or as the ocean is to
a thimble.

On November 6, 1995, I wrote to Noel this paragraph as part of a
long letter of joy over our adoption plan:

In adopting a black child we would embrace and affirm the value
of personhood in God's image above racial distinctives. This is a
crucial message for our day of cultural pride that may tend to
minimize the utter uniqueness of humanity over against all other
beings with a value as created in God's image that is infinitely
more important than any racial or cultural trait. We would be
saying that being a human person is so indescribably important that
it should take priority over race and culture in governing what is
good for a child.

The other truth about Talitha is that she is adopted. We learned
from our heavenly Father how to do this. "When the fullness of the
time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the
Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we
might receive the adoption" (Galatians 4:4-5). But there is even
more. In that same letter to Noel I wrote:

By adopting this child we would embrace and affirm the
preciousness of life over against the death-dealing industry of
abortion. Talitha's birth-mother chose against abortion. We choose
to affirm that choice. By this we put our money and our time and
our lives where our mouth is. There are other ways to be real and
serious about fighting abortion. But here is one that is necessary
and therefore some families must do it. To do it is a good and
powerful thing.

Our special times to focus on Racial Harmony and Sanctity of
Life lead us to ponder the preciousness of being created in the
image of God and being adopted into the eternal family of God. The
greatest truths are the most basic ones. If we saw the wonder and
felt the weight and tasted the glory of these truths, what a
difference it would make in our racial attitudes and our engagement
for the unborn. Pray with me that God's power in these two special
weekends would linger and help us to rise from our slumber.

Wakening with you,

Pastor John