From Nothing to Superbowl Champion

From nothing to Super Bowl champion.  Wow.  Did you watch the Super Bowl last Sunday?  Man- it was a great game!  But I think the most powerful story to come out of that game is the story of Baltimore Ravens offensive linemen Michael Oher.

Oher, whose story was made famous in the Oscar-winning film “The Blind Side,” grew up in Memphis, Tenn., the son of a crack-addict mother and an absent father. He didn’t have a permanent home and was eventually taken in and adopted by the Tuohy family.

Here’s a picture that was taken just after the Ravens became world champions and won the Super Bowl:

It was a powerful moment.  In it, an emotional Leigh Anne Tuohy is seen hugging her adopted son, Michael Oher, after his team, the Baltimore Ravens, won the big game Sunday night. “We both just darted for each other and he picked me up,” she told ABC News today. “He was so excited and I was just sobbing.”

“Dreams do come true,” Oher told ABC News after Sunday’s victory. “I came so far, from nothing to a Super Bowl champion. I’m in shock right now.”
Oher, an offensive tackle, helped the Ravens hold off the San Francisco 49ers, 34-31.
As she drove back to Memphis today from New Orleans, Touhy told ABC News that she and her husband truly love Oher as much as they love their biological children, who also were present at the game to cheer him on.
“Families don’t have to match,” she said. “You don’t have to look like someone else to love them. There are wonderful kids all over this country who need a forever family. And we believe there are no unwanted kids, just unfound families.”

You know, we all come from broken, imperfect families.  Maybe not an addicted-to-crack mom and an absent father, but certainly not perfect.  The reality is- none of us are perfect either.  At our church, we have a saying: “No Perfect People Allowed.”  We want to be honest about that and not pretend that any of us have it all put together.

Here’s the beautiful thing about Christianity that is different than any other religion. Every other religion is about how to work hard to make ourselves good enough.  Christianity tells the story of how God sent his only son to rescue and redeem us so that we might be adopted into the family of God.  I think that’s beautiful.

No matter what you’ve done or what has happened in your past- you can find your forever family by surrendering your life to God and following his son Jesus.  God has invited us into his family.  How will you respond to his invitation?