The other day I was standing in line at the grocery store and to occupy my time, I started reading over the cover stories on some of the magazines. One of the biggest “news” stories was the surprise choice the most recent “Bachelorette” made for her fiancé. I’ve found this shocked reaction quite common with other shows and in other arenas. At the end of seasons of American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance, my Facebook newsfeed is filled with people shocked by the winner. The same reaction exists when the underdog team wins in March Madness or when a certain film is selected for best picture at the Oscar’s. We even see it in things like the choice of fiancés in our families, the selection of the prom queen, and the hired employee at our workplace.
And in the great love affair between God and his people, we see a history of people who are “random picks”. We see a God who chooses people that didn’t seem fit, competent, or anywhere near the best choice. Deuteronomy 4:32-40 is a beautiful passage that highlights God’s choice of the nation of Israel for his people. And the great culmination of this passage is in verses 37-38, which reads that “For love of your fathers, he chose their descendants and personally led you out of Egypt by his great power, driving out of your way nations greater and mightier than you.”
As we look through Scripture, we see that this practice of choosing the unexpected is commonplace with the Lord. God didn’t select the poised and charismatic Aaron; he chose the stuttering, self-conscious Moses. He didn’t select the most respected woman in the community; he chose a teenage girl to be the mother of Jesus. Jesus didn’t choose the learned or the most religious; he chose fishermen to lead his Church. The Spirit didn’t select the most faithful follower to be the greatest missionary ever to live; he chose to speak and work through the murdering, persecuting Paul.
Through the lives of the Saints, we see the choice of the worldly-driven Augustine to teach the Church about the beauty of dependence on God. God selected the rich and arrogant Francis to teach about the joy of detachment. And he appointed the cloistered Therese to be the patroness of missionaries.
And then there is the choice of us—the complacent, the doubting, the unfaithful, the inflexible, the gossipers, liars, adulterers, and self-obsessed. Yet, the sinless one chooses the sinners. The shepherd chooses the lost sheep. The faithful one chooses the unfaithful. The merciful one chooses those who lack mercy. We are a random choice. We are the unlikely. We are the unexpected.
Today, let us be awed by this reality. Let us fall on our knees in worship of a God who sees past our sin and weakness, and sees what his grace can transform. Let us recognize the sinner in us, yet see the way that God still has chosen to pursue and use us. And with grateful heart and humbled spirit, may we too “fix in your hearts that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on the earth below, and that there is no other” like him. Lord, chooser of the unchosen, seeker of the lost, we fix our eyes on you with adoration and gratitude for your beautiful, irrational nature and your beautiful, irrational love.
Megan, I loved this so much. It truly was just what I needed to hear. It's so perfect, and something so easily forgotten.
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