By: The Rev. Russell E. J. Martin
Perhaps one of the most painful and hardest lessons for children to learn is the sting of rejection. We all have felt the bitterness of rejection whether it was being chosen last for a team, having a friendship end, or being spurned by someone we thought loved us. Such instances can be soul searing even long after our childhood has past. Yet, God’s love is a potent antidote to such pain. As a Pastor, I am often surprised by the number of Christians who continue to carry burdens of rejection, not because I have trouble believing such hurts are genuine —for they are all too real. No, I am surprised by the number of those who follow Jesus Christ and believe Him to be the Son of God and their Savior and believe the words He has spoken to be the “very words of eternal life,” and yet they somehow have a hard time believing that they are chosen and beloved by God. They have no trouble believing that Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6) and that He died on the Cross and rose again but when it comes to accepting our Lord’s words regarding His choosing us, they seem to balk as if these words are somehow less than the full truth.
There is great power, and it is truly a wondrous gift of grace, to realize that each and every one of us has life specifically because God made a choice. With God no human life is without value or beyond the scope of His notice or care. Each of us is tenderly knit together in our mother’s womb by the hand of God (Ps. 139:13) and none of us is counted as worthless or insignificant in His eyes. It is a great shame that we live in a time when human life is treated with such callous disregard, but perhaps this is nothing new, but the same old thing sadly repeating itself. And it is a great and lamentable lie of the Enemy that any should think any less of the gift of life than does God, Himself. It is imperative that Christians cling to and witness to the value of every human life as being a precious gift from God. If humans were indeed without worth then there would have been no need for Jesus to suffer and die. Why bother, unless of course He loved and valued us! Should we not then accept this free gift of life and live it in honor of the One who gave it to us so freely?
Each of us must take to heart the truth that while we may have experienced rejection it was only on the human level and that the Lord has something very special in mind for each of us! You have been “chosen and appointed,” so now go and live it by loving one another as Christ has loved us!