I was one of the youngest in my class, what didn't help was that I was also blessed with the McCord speed, so I was also one of the slowest. Youngest, slowest, smallest..... This usually means your also one of the last picked. Oh the humiliation, my eyes staring down at the ground as all the other kids were picked. A glimmer of hope as I somehow thought that maybe I would be picked before the boy with one leg or the blind girl; but no. The slow walk as the other kids ran off to assume their positions of grandeur out on the field, my slow walk to right field to some other obscure spot. dreaming of being any place other than where I was at. OK, so maybe it wasn't that bad. There were times when a buddy of mine was captain and I might get picked earlier than usual. One glorious summer I didn't get to play little league with the rest of the kids in my class because of the age cut off date, I had to play with the two grades below me. What a glorious summer that was. I wasn't batting 9th, didn't sit on the bench. I felt like an all star. I think we all remember that feeling. I gotta belief that God knew how I felt when I was one of the last picked. In knowing, he pushed Paul to write one verse addressing that lonely little boy. That verse is...
Ephesians 1:4
For he chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In Love.
I remember the few times that I was a captain and allowed to chose. Carefully measuring and plotting out just who to pick. For a few brief moments I was as focused on this task as any Major League Scout. Should I pick a friend or pick one of the fast kids. I didn't get to chose that often, I think the largest part of that reasoning being that I did deliberate, did take to long to choose; after all, there is only so many minutes in PE class. What is comforting about this verse is that it tells us that God did chose us. This tells me that before anything existed God knew that I would come into being, that events would occur in my life that would lead me to him and that I would accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. It's easy to think that with all the people that have ever existed, all the Christians that have ever accepted Christ into their Hearts, all those people that are some day going to walk the streets of Heaven; he chose me. He chose that short, chubby slow kid from Buffalo Oklahoma. The kid that couldn't hit a ball because he was too ashamed to wear his glasses. He chose him. It's amazing to me to think that before everything, he knew of me. To me this puts a personal aspect on my faith. Christians number into the millions, how easy would it have been for God to have kicked back and said I'll take the top 50 percent or maybe the first 2 million to follow me. It is amazing because what this verse states is that he knew me before the big bang, if science is right that's well over 13.7 billion years ago.
The time thing is awe inspiring, but what is truly inspiring is that he chose me. He chose me knowing everything I have done, every thought I have ever had or will have. My life hasn't been perfect, far from it. I've had my ups and downs. I've done some things I'm proud of, but allot of things I am not proud of, allot of things I'm ashamed of. 13.7 billion years ago Jesus knew this and he said "I want that guy". He didn't pick me at my best, he chose me knowing my worse. I keep hearing that God is a vengeful God. I've read this in the bible and I know it is true. But what I also know is that in spite of all my faults, all the sin in my life, Christ knows me and he chose me.
Here is God the Creator, he created everything, knows everything. Mountains, the Universe, Life itself: He created all of this in 6 days. With just a mere thought he could wipe out or destroy everything. He has power that I can not even fathom. To sit there and think that God the Creator, God the Judge chose me is one thing; to sit there and say he wiped away my sin is another.
The second part of this verse says he chose us to to be holy and blameless in His sight. To do this something had to happen. Something big had to occur, because I know that I am far from being Holy and Blameless. What did happen is that he loved me. How much did he love me? He came here in the Flesh, Roman Soldiers ripped that flesh from his body, He was hung from a Cross, suffocating. Not only did he choose us, but he also died for us. I remember the day my buddy J.D. picked me to be first on his dodge ball team. What a glorious day that was. We lost that day, the short chubby usually isn't buddies with the greatest athlete, but it did feel good to be picked first. That feeling is nothing though compared to the feeling that God the Creator chose me 13.7 billion years ago, he chose me knowing I was a sinner, knowing I wasn't perfect. He chose me knowing that his sacrifice, his blood sacrifice, the death of his Son on the Cross would make me "holy and blameless in His sight" and he did it out of Love. I'd play Dodge Ball for him any day.
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