One of the mysteries I do not understand is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Clearly, this miracle demonstrated Jesus Christ’s power over death. However, I cannot grasp how that happened to a dead man.

Meditating on the fact I was adopted by the Heavenly Father as His son (Ephesians 1:5) helped me accept this mystery. Looking at adoption from human eyes, it is a miracle when children are born. They are beautiful and fill their parents with hope. For some children, however, their relationship with their birth parents ends (whether naturally through death or unnaturally through their parents sacrificially allowing them to be adopted by a different set of parents). Thinking about this rupture in natural relationships gives us pause.

On the surface, everything about this disruption appears bad to us. Anyone who has seen a baby born knows the immediate kinship the baby has with its birth mother. Nothing would make us want to sever this bond (like the umbilical cord that has just been cut in two). A new life has been brought into the world, full of love! Darkness and sadness creep in with the thought of a baby’s mother turning over her child to another.

However, prospective moms and dads hope for a chance at adoption. They yearn to love and rear just such a child. Then, another miracle occurs. They find out that they have been given the privilege of adopting. Loss of hope is immediately transformed into exuberant optimism. The unthinkable has become a possibility. A child has made this occur.

When the disciples were sure that the death of Jesus on the cross would mean the end of all their faith and dreams, they were shocked by the announcement that Jesus was no longer in the grave, a pit of despair. Instead, He came back to those to whom He had entrusted His gospel. Death had been conquered! Man was no longer a slave to sin! As if this were not enough, Jesus taught them that all who believed in Him as Savior and Lord would also be resurrected! Tragedy had been supplanted by rejoicing.

Since the same transformation occurs in adoption, I have faith in the mystery of the resurrection. Something much better awaits me after my physical death. Jesus has promised me that this is so!