I realize I’m revealing my age, but since it’s my birthday tomorrow I might as well. I hear there’s a 2007 movie version out on Netflix. Maybe the kids and I will watch it. We love to root for the underdog, don’t we. I think that’s because there’s a little bit of the underdog in all of us.
Are you the kid who didn’t get picked for a team? Or maybe your science fair project earned the
participation ribbon? Perhaps everyone ‘just
forgot’ to invite you to the party.
Whatever form it takes, we all experience rejection on some level. If you claim that you have not, I’m going to
employ a playground favorite “Liar, Liar pants on fire!” When I was a kid on the playground, I often
felt like an outcast. Maybe you did
too. Here’s one of my favorite things
about God: He picks the underdog. Fee
and Stuart note this as one of the various common themes in Biblical
narratives.1 God chose the
younger brother Jacob over the older brother Esau as heir of His covenant with
Isaac and Abraham. He chose Rahab
(prostitute) and Ruth (foreigner) to be ancestors of King David. He chose David as King of Israel instead of
his older and stronger brothers. Jesus
associated with tax collectors, ‘sinners’, and other religious reprobates
during His earthly ministry.
If you have ever felt invisible in the eyes of others,
contemptible or forlorn, then I want you to read this next part closely. God calls you by name. He chooses you. He claims you as His own. Now read it again and believe it.
1. Fee, Gordon D., and
Douglas K. Stuart. How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guided Tour.
Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002. N. p. 23. Print.
