image courtesy of Jason Upton’s website
I recently heard Jason Upton’s adoption story repeated and loved how God strung together different events to show His love. Jason Upton is a worship leader often compared to Keith Green – whose passion for the Lord comes clearly through his music. His story is that he is adopted, and recently as he had gotten older decided the need to pursue finding his birth parents. What he found out was the amazing hand of God fulfilling his destiny.
Jason’s mom became a Christian in the late 60’s early 70’s in the Jesus movement. She loved Jesus then fell for this man who was “not yet” a believer. In Jason’s words he was the fruit of evangelism gone bad. A few months into the pregnancy his mom decided she wanted to get an abortion. Jason’s dad talked her out of it.
Three months after Jason was born, Jason was placed in the home of his adoptive parents. During this time his mom put together a box of memories for Jason. She included pictures of him, the house, and his parents. She also included his story and a prayer she had written out.
This adoption was considered a closed adoption. This is where the only way for Jason or the parents to find out who the other was is through mutual consent. So some time after Jason contacted the adoption agency with his request, he received this box. He opened the box, looked through the pictures, and read the prayer. His mom had prayed that Jason would one day become a worshiper and lead others into worship. God had answered her prayer without Jason knowing it was prayed for him and without his mom knowing it was fulfilled.
After getting the box, Jason called his mother. All the adoption agency had told her was that her son was looking for her and may call. So when the call came through Jason said, “My name is Jason Upton, and I believe I’m your son.” Her husband then came on the line, said she could not talk now, and hung up.
What had happened after putting Jason up for adoption was his mom went through some tough emotional pain during which she abandoned the Lord that took many years to come out from under. When she finally started to come back, she had a lot of unresolved issues for the Lord to heal. She had noticed that there was one musician that her church had played that really spoke the words on her heart. She asked around to find out who it was and bought that CD. She did not know at that time was the music she had bought was from the son she had given to adoption.
I am sure there is more to this story I missed in the retelling. But what I did gain was how the hand of God was at work in a situation that at points had been very traumatic for Jason’s mom. God is powerful enough to turn all of our darkest moments into signs of His wonderful goodness. No situation is too bad that can’t be redeemed. Jason is who he is because his mom allowed him to be adopted by his parents. It has affected his life and affected his ministry. And through it all, God’s hand was at work redeeming and blessing. God works through all things for good.
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