I Choose YOU!

Remember the schoolyard days when team captains picked their players one by one. I wasn’t exactly athletic, and I sure didn’t bloom like the other roses on the bush. So, you guessed it -- I was usually chosen last. Oh, the sting of that self-pity! I’m so thankful I outgrew my lack of self esteem.

But Jesus isn’t like those captains. He came on a mission of love – one that chooses each one of us: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son; that whoever believes in Him, will not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

He didn’t come for the popular, the perfect, or the first picks. He came for the lost, the ones nobody else would choose. That’s you. That’s me.

Every one of us matters to Him. The world may tell us one person doesn’t make a difference, but Jesus is all about THE ONE. He crossed a stormy sea to heal a single tormented man. He went out of His way to speak to one outcast woman by a well. And He paused in a crowded street to comfort one woman suffering for years.

In Luke 15, we see it over and over. One lost sheep, one lost coin, one lost son. Jesus doesn’t just pursue the lost. He seeks the one that’s lost.

EVERYONE is valuable to Jesus. No matter how unworthy the world might label someone, Jesus sees beyond it. The religious leaders of His day were baffled that He chose to be with people considered the worst sinners. Tax collectors, outcasts, losers – all were drawn to Him. Why? Because He didn’t judge them. He loved them, cared for them, and showed them that they were worth pursuing.

Here’s a truth that still amazes me. Jesus isn’t waiting for us to clean ourselves up so He would love us. He comes after us. Jesus taught that God searches for us. Not just the worthy, but all of us. Every single one.

Maybe there’s a ONE in your sphere of influence who you know feels unloved, who feels they are no good, no value, no hope and no great expectations for their future. What if you are THE ONE God is calling to be that ONE who is Christ’s hands and heart extended?

Lord, please help us to see the ONES as you see them. May we be your voice, your hands, your feet to the ONES You see and love. Use us, dear Lord, to be someone’s ONE today!