Day 80: We Were Chosen

Read: Genesis 11:10-17

My youngest siblings are adopted. When they would question their value compared to my brother and I who are my parents’ biological children, my parents would respond by saying, “We didn’t choose Micah and Eliana. They were born to us, but we chose you.” My parents were not devaluing Micah and I. We never once questioned our parents’ love for us. But there is something special about being chosen. 

My siblings did nothing that caused my parents to adopt them. At the time, they were young children, 4 and 5 years old, who were confused and hurt by life, unsure of who they belonged to. They did not have the ability to find parents and earn love. Rather, it was my parents who loved them first and was that love that motivated their decision to adopt.

God chose one man after another to be in the lineage of Christ until He – the One chosen to redeem humanity – came to the earth. Now, God is continually redeeming the people He has chosen to be a part of His family.

Jesus says in John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you…” Peter then said in 1 Peter 2:9-10, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

We did nothing to earn God’s favor. Our salvation has nothing to do with our past or what we are doing in the present or our potential for the future. The men in the lineage of Christ did nothing to earn the right to be one of the Savior’s ancestors. God simply chose them.

Everything that we are is rooted in God. He loved us first and chose us to be a part of His family. It is a relief to know that there is nothing to be done for salvation and nothing that can be done to change God’s love for us. All that we have to do is say yes to Him. Our hope does not shift with our own inconsistency but is rooted in the Father who never changes.

 My siblings were chosen by my parents and nothing they do with change their love for them. Even more so, we were chosen by God and nothing we do will change His love for us. I encourage you to take time today to consider this truth.