Chosen
Chosen
“In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,”
Ephesians 1:11 NIV
https://www.bible.com/bible/111/eph.1.11.niv
As I continue to read the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, today I was struck with the idea that we have been chosen.
It Is wonderful to be chosen. It is special to feel wanted. We all probably have had the experience of anxiously waiting to see if we we would be picked for the team in a sporting event or academic competition. We may have had the thrill of being selected or the sense of dejection that comes from being left out.
One personal example of feeling deeply hurt over not being chosen happened to me early in life when I was just a pre schooler. There is a song and a game for young children entitled The Farmer in the Dell. This game involves players choosing others. The website Quora.com describes it this way:
“It is part of a song. "The Farmer in the Dell" is not just a song but a dance. At the beginning, one child, the "farmer," stands in the center of a circle, and the other children sing and dance around him/her. On the first verse, s/he choses a spouse, and that child leaves the circle to join the farmer at the center. The spouse takes a child on the next verse; on the next the child picks a nurse; shortly after that it's a barnyard menagerie that lasts long enough to pack the rest of the kids into the center, with the proviso that the last four characters "taken" are the dog, cat, rat, and cheese. The cheese, having no one left to "take," stands alone…”
I remember playing that game and was not taken until the end. Therefore I was the cheese in the middle by myself with no one left to take. The children began to chant “The cheese stands alone, The cheese stands alone Hi-ho the dairy O The cheese stands alone”
Though many decades have passed I still have the memory of being very sad. I was almost inconsolable as I cried over and over I don’t want to be the cheese. I believe that my 3 year old self was yearning to not stand alone -I longed to be chosen. (And still do. )
Humans sometimes make choices based on abilities beauty or what benefits us. God’s love is unconditional and is not based on performance. Those who know Jesus and have a relationship with Him can demonstrate His heart.
In a previous post I focused on adoption. This demonstrates God’s love Parents who lovingly choose to adopt children in need can reveal the truth of the depth of God’s love.
I have a very dear friend who is a marvelous example of love that has chosen. She and her husband have3 sons, two of them came into their family by adoption. One son was an international adoption. Their next son is a special needs adoptee. This precious boy has complex disabilities. The limitations he has were not a surprise to them. In fact they found their son on a website depicting children waiting for their forever family My friends were aware of his needs and wanted him. They chose this child and under took great effort to bring him home as their own.
I share these examples with the intention to convey that to be chosen is marvelous.
How grateful we must be that we have been chosen by God.
Here are some Bible verses to ponder:
https://www.openbible.info/topics/being_chosen
Worship Songs
Why Have You Chosen Me
Chosen
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