As I watch the Summer Olympics I am remembering how much I loved to play sports when I was young. I could run fairly fast as a young girl. I remember there was one girl that could always beat me. She was really fast. When she was in the race I always came in second. I loved playing softball, volleyball, and basketball, until I blew out my knee. I loved to bowl. When it came time to choose teammates, I might not be chosen first, but I was always picked in the top three or four.
I never wanted to be left standing on the sidelines waiting for one of the teams to choose me. It hasn’t changed much as I have aged. I still don’t want to be left standing on the sidelines. I imagine these Olympic athletes are also glad to be chosen.
One of the most magnificent phrases in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians comes in the opening verses. First, he said that we have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Then he goes on, “for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”
The word chosen in the original Greek means, “chosen once for all.” We have been chosen out of this world, once for all, to be God’s own peculiar treasure. Jesus reminded His disciples in John 16 that they had not chosen Him, but He had chosen them.
Does that mean God picks and chooses just a few and the rest of the world can go to hell in a hand basket? Does it mean God overrides our own free will to choose so that we respond to Him? I don’t think so. But again, I cannot explain the mind of God and how this all works in His Divine Plan.
I do know that it is God’s desire that all come to salvation in Christ, but God is not foolish, He knows all will not respond to his call.
I used to wonder how God could forget what I once was, especially when it is so hard for me to forget … but this verse comforts me. I was chosen in Christ before creation to be holy and without blame before Him in love. God saw the finished product in Christ before I was even created.
This is one of the greatest of all riches found in Christ!
