Being chosen by God

I can remember as a boy standing on the corner of Grant and Norton where we would play baseball in the summer and football in the fall and winter.

All of the young guys from the neighborhood would come. As I recall, it was truly a Norman Rockwell kind of upbringing.

Lazy days riding bikes to the pool, stopping off at the corner store for a candy bar, playing basketball till we dropped.

But back to the corner of Grant and Norton. Inevitably what would happen would be that two people were elected to "pick" the teams. What an anxious moment for a gangly, skinny kid with asthma. Where would I be chosen?

Nobody wanted to be picked last.

Everybody wanted to be picked first or at least second or third.

It became almost hierarchical in it's approach.

This Saturday is the NFL Draft where teams from the National Football League choose college players to add to their rosters.

It is an honor to be picked first.

It got me to thinking today - I am glad that God has chosen me.

Paul writes in Ephesians 1:4,5 that "he chose us in him before the creation of the world...he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ..."

We as evangelicals stress (and rightly so) that we must make a decision as to whether to accept or reject Christ.

But first of all we must realize that God has chosen us!

You and I are important to God!

He has chosen you!

If you feel unappreciated today, or discourage because of a lack of recognition, know that in the eyes of our Creator, he has picked you first!