November 23rd

The Living Stone

              Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”  To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,” and “A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.”  They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts 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.

1 Peter 2:4-10

             How many different ways does Peter use to describe how precious we are to God in this passage?  We have:

·         A chosen race

·          A royal priesthood

·         A holy priesthood

·         A holy nation

·         God’s own people

Peter goes out of his way to show how special we are to God…how He has chosen us and called us and selected us to be His own.  Why does the author spend so much time reiterating this point? 

            Because that is not what we hear throughout the course of our days.  What we hear is that we are not good enough, not smart enough, not rich enough, not pretty enough…we do not have what it takes to be one of the important ones.  We do not matter…and that is the message that we receive as typical adults.  Our kids receive this tenfold. 

            I love that there were schools that my son attended that had SPED rooms where he could go if he was feeling overwhelmed and that there were faculty there who were deeply invested in his health and wellbeing.  I hate that there were some teachers who gave up trying to teach him so that they could focus on other kids who could actually learn.  I hate that his choices in education were either to drown in a typical classroom or fall so far behind in the SPED class that he would have no chance to ever graduate high school.

            I love that his teachers included him in class games and class projects and gave him an open invitation to participate with his peers.  I hate that this ended up in daily rejection for him as no one wanted him on their team or in their group or working on their project.  I hate that the open invitations also came with no supports so he became an automatic liability to anyone who worked with him.

            Do you know who else was rejected and discarded by the world, but called “Chosen” and “Precious in God’s sight”?  Jesus.  He is the perfect piece…the one that only the Almighty could figure out what to do with.  Jesus just did not fit for everyone else and so they did away with Him.  But God…God looked on Him with love and tenderness and smiled as Jesus was used by the Father to transform the world.

            And that is how God looks at our loveable, oft-rejected misfits.  He calls them chosen.  He calls them precious.  He calls them royal and holy and He calls them His own.  The world may look at our kids and know with certainty that they will never amount to anything…never be able to get a job or an education…never have anything to give back to society.  But God smiles for He knows how to use things that no one else has the creativity for and He says, “I choose that one…they are Mine.”

A moment to reflect:

Where has your child not fit?  Release the pain of that to God and see what He has to say.