In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will… (Ephesians 1:4b-5 ESV)
Madison is looking at herself in the mirror, and her heart is broken. She’s sitting in her room, with the lights off, and the fading sun softly entering her window to illuminate a gloomy reflection of herself. She’s an orphan, and today the wealthiest and kindest man she’s ever known is coming to adopt a child, but she knows he’ll never pick her.
The sadness has come from reflecting on her seventeen years of life. Seventeen years spent at the orphanage, and probably many more years to come. Although she wasn’t born in the orphanage, she was so little when she arrived that she has known nothing else. And the orphanage is not a terrible place, but like every kid, she longed for a day when a loving family would come and put down the money to redeem her and take her home. Maddie would often dream of what it would be like. She’d picture playing board games with a family, sitting in front of a fireplace, laughing and sharing stories. But this was just a dream. Maddie knew the system, and the system meant that she might never leave the orphanage.
See, there wasn’t one price for every kid. The value of a kid was worked out based on how good the kid was. To incentivize good behaviour, the orphanage would add an extra R10 to a kid every time they did something wrong. Madison was now the most expensive kid in the orphanage, and this meant her chances of leaving the orphanage were slim. Why would any parent want to pay for an expensive, naughty kid when they could get a much cheaper, sweet, polite, and wonderful one?
Growing up, Madison had done a lot of things she wasn’t proud of, and a lot of things she felt she couldn’t avoid. She had felt abandoned by her biological parents, and so, because not even her parents cared about her, why should she care about anyone else? This led her to being rude in school, a bully to anyone smaller than her, and a rather challenging person to be friends with, for she didn’t care about anyone else’s feelings. If no one cared about her feelings, why should she care about theirs?
This hatred of the world only made things worse for her. The more she rejected the world, the more the world rejected her, and this made her price go further and further up. Often, prospective parents would come, but when they looked at her record and her cost, they would turn her down. This only fuelled her anger and hatred for the world.
As she got older, something peculiar happened. Her heart began to soften. What started it was a few other teenagers who decided to befriend her. She had become popular as the ‘bad girl’ in the home, and this drew other kids to her. While she was rude and unkind, she was popular, and this meant other boys and girls wanted to be seen with her so that they too could be seen as popular. While she’d never admit it to their faces, she liked having them around. But she’d never let her guard down. To them, she’d always appear happy and not affected by the teachers and people who couldn’t stand her. She’d especially never tell her friends about the new occurrence in her life—the new side effect from her heart melting—the tears she would cry at night because she longed to be held.
This morning, as she looked in the mirror, like she so often did, the tears came once again. She had heard about this man who was coming to redeem a kid, for he was extremely wealthy and had adopted other kids before. Often, those kids would come and visit the orphanage, and she’d hear how great a father this man was, for these kids loved to chat about their new dad. They expressed how, if they needed something, they could just knock, and his door would be opened. They’d share without shame how he’d listen to them and constantly reassure them that he was always with them. They were not embarrassed to talk about their compassionate father because they admired him. He was so invested in their lives that he knew everything about them, even all the hairs on their head. To him, they weren’t just one of a hundred kids in an orphanage. They were his kids, and he adored them. He’d comfort them when they were sad and stand by their side through each trial they went through. And one would think, being so wealthy, that he’d never see children as important. Yet, if a child ran to him, he’d get mad at anyone who tried to hinder one of his kids from coming to him.
Madison could only dream of a dad like that. But she knew inside that there were far better and cheaper children than herself. She had cried because all her wrongdoing had made such a hefty price that she wasn’t sure even he, being so wealthy, would pay it. She was genuinely sorry for all the things that she had done, but she knew that nothing she said would ever make her high price go away.
The tears finally ended when she heard a car pull up along the front of the orphanage. She pulled herself away from the mirror and went to the window to see the man pull up in his car. Like always, Mrs. Demison, the headmistress, went out to greet the prospective buyer. As the man got out of the car, she greeted him with a warm, ‘Welcome to Alpine Orphanage, how can I help you today?’
Madison had sat at this window many times before, so she knew how the conversation normally went. Mrs. Demison would greet the prospective parent, the parent would say, ‘I’m interested in adopting,’ and Mrs. Demison would say, ‘Come to my office and let’s chat’… whereafter she’d discuss the ins and outs of adopting and provide a list of potential children to adopt. But this morning, the wealthy man caught her off guard.
‘I’d like to adopt Madison Darlington, please.’
Madison, who had been looking out the mirror, now dropped below the windowsill and sat shocked with her back against the wall. Her heart was pounding, and she struggled to breathe. Did he just say her name? Did she hear right? Her previous eavesdropping now intensified as she wanted to make sure she heard every single detail.
‘Are you sure you want Madison?’ replied Mrs. Demison.
‘I’m sure.’
‘No, I don’t think you are. I’m not one to be rude about our kids, but Madison has a high track record of disobedience…’
‘I’m aware of her disobedience. I’ve known her, her entire life. I’ve watched her grow, and I’ve seen everything she’s done… and I want to adopt her.’
‘Ok…’ said Mrs. Demison cautiously. ‘But even a man of your wealth may struggle to afford her. Are you sure that you don’t want to look at another kid? I know you’ve got a big family of kids who adore you, and I’ve seen how they’ve changed to become this united group of kids who love you and each other… But Madison is the worst we’ve had. She might wreck the good thing you’ve got going.’
‘Ma’am,’ said the man indignantly, ‘You might not realize this, but I know Madison better than you, and I want to be her father more than anything else in the world. Since she’s been a kid, I’ve had reports sent to me about her, and I only wished I could have adopted her sooner. I’ve seen the kind of kid she is, and I still want her because, in my heart, she’s always been my little girl.’
‘I want her to come to me when she has struggles. I want to be beside her in every step she takes so that I can enjoy her life with her, rejoice with her, laugh with her, and reassure her that she’s never alone. I want to raise her to be the best person she can be, and I will protect her and love her the rest of her life… and you think that she’s too expensive for me… well, I’ll give the most expensive thing I own to pay for her. I’ll give her my life.’
He took a moment to compose himself and said, ‘She may not mean much to you or others, but I love that little girl, and I’ll give my life to bring her into my family. So yes, I’m sure of who I want to adopt.’
For a moment, Madison just sat there, unable to move. What she had just heard overwhelmed her to the point that she couldn’t move. She had never experienced love like she just heard. It was as if her body did not know how to cope with the overwhelming nature of the man’s love, so she sat in shock, unable to speak or comprehend entirely what she heard.
When her mind finally started working, her thoughts were a bit confused. Why her? Why did he want to adopt her? She was the one person who shoved everybody else away, the one person who was terrible at loving. Why would he choose her? And then it occurred to her! He didn’t love her because of her actions, or even because of who she was. It wasn’t about her personality. It wasn’t whether she was good enough or bad enough, smart enough, dumb enough, pretty enough, or ugly enough. He wanted her… because he wanted her. He wanted Madison.
A fresh set of tears came to her eyes. And this time, it wasn’t because of sadness. It was because of joy.
A man who had known her, her whole life, who knew everything about her, had come today to give his life for her. And she knew that this meant she was going to go home to a place where he’d always be and to a place filled with other children who loved like he did because they were loved so much that it overflowed to others. She smiled because she, the unwanted orphan, was now the most blessed child in the world.
Short story by Gareth Maggs.