The Fingerprints on the Fridge

When Marcus and Dena Thompson of Nashville finalized the adoption of seven-year-old Jaylen in 2019, the judge asked Jaylen if he understood what was happening. Jaylen nodded and whispered, "It means I get to stay." That night, Dena found Jaylen pressing his small hand against the refrigerator door, leaving a smudged fingerprint on the stainless steel. She started to wipe it off, but Marcus stopped her. "Leave it," he said. "That's the handprint of a Thompson."

For three years in foster care, Jaylen had been taught to leave no marks, to take up as little space as possible, to live as though he might be asked to leave at any moment. Now his father was telling him the opposite — make your mark, take up space, you belong here.

That refrigerator still has Jaylen's prints on it. Dena says she will never clean them off.

The Apostle John writes with breathless wonder: "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" Not temporary. Not provisional. We are His — right now. And yet John adds that what we will fully become has not yet been revealed. We are children today, still growing into the family resemblance. One day we will see Him and be made completely like Him. But even now, the Father looks at every fumbling fingerprint we leave on this world and says, "Leave it. That belongs to one of Mine."