Do you remember the awkwardness you felt as you shifted uneasily from one foot the other? Though it had always proven untrue, you anticipate somebody wanting to choose you. Your stomach twisting in knots, you cross your fingers. Please don’t let me be the last one picked! Each team captain loudly calls out the first few names of those who are gifted with speed or agility or aggressiveness. But you? You wait alongside a few other children who all seem to wear the same defeated expression on their faces. Still, they wait bravely until someone reluctantly announces his or her name. Finally chosen.
Maybe you were one of the children hand-picked straight away for games at recess. It’s possible you were even the team captain. But, it seems all of us experience the pain of rejection at some point. I don’t know your story, but you may have felt rejection’s sting in any number of ways.
That job you wanted. The spouse you thought you knew. An emotionally absent parent.
But there is a truth so much greater than human acceptance or rejection. It’s an amazing story of a God so consumed by love for His children that from eternity past, He looked at our now and noticed you. Noticed me. And the Ruler of yesterday, today, and every day in between “settled on us as the focus of his love” (Ephesians 1:5 MSG).
Imagine! From the depths of a holy heaven, God called out your name and mine—and the names of all who will listen.
Not one left wanting to belong.
Nobody left waiting on the sidelines because she isn’t good enough.
No! The beauty of God choosing His children is not that we are inherently lovely, intelligent, or important but that in Christ’s resurrection, we were made free to be accepted by the Father—just as we are.
Can you hear Him calling, friend? Listen for a moment…He’s shouting it out. “I. Choose. You.”
Encouraging Scripture for Today
13-14 It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.
