The Orphan Who Was Claimed Before He Could Walk

In 1864, Confederate raiders kidnapped an enslaved woman named Mary from a small Missouri farm, taking her infant son with her. Moses Carver, the farmer, sent a scout to recover them. The scout returned with only the baby — sick, frail, barely alive. Moses and his wife Susan chose to raise the boy as their own, giving him their family name.

That child was George Washington Carver.

Long before George could speak, before he could walk, before he understood anything about botany or soil chemistry, he had been claimed. The Carvers saw a helpless infant with no prospects and said, "This one is ours." They poured resources into his education. They gave him an inheritance of identity when the world offered him none. George would go on to transform Southern agriculture, developing over 300 uses for the peanut and helping thousands of struggling farmers feed their families.

Paul writes that God "chose us in Him before the foundation of the world" and "predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:4-5). Before you drew your first breath, before you accomplished a single thing worth noting, the Almighty looked at you and said, "This one is Mine." Your adoption was not a reaction to your performance. It was planned before the stars were hung in place. You were chosen not because of what you would become, but because of who He already is — a Father whose purpose and love were settled long before you arrived.