I've got a lot of stuff in my house that wouldn't impress you. Things you wouldn't buy at my garage sale. Old photos, things my kids have made, and, as you might know, a lot of CDs.
Someone else may glance at these things and not think twice about them. But good luck trying to convince me to throw any of it away.
There's something precious about the things themselves and what they mean to me.
First Peter describes Jesus as a living stone, "rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight."
Today, I'm reflecting on that word "yet."
Jesus was rejected, yet precious. People dismissed him, yet God chose him. Those realities existed together. But Jesus did not have to wait for everyone to change their minds before he mattered to God.
Let me offer a bit of encouragement and say the same thing about you.
Jesus knows what rejection feels like. He knows the pain of being misunderstood, abandoned, and thrown away. His resurrection, though, reminds us that those judgments aren't the ones that matter.
The people reading Peter's letter needed that reminder, and I think we do, too, sometimes.
Being precious to God does not make any rejection we face painless. But it does give us somewhere to stand when rejection comes. And doesn't that also change how we look at other people? If human judgment could dismiss Jesus, we should be careful about the people we dismiss.
There are people we overlook simply because they don't seem useful, impressive, or worth our time. We may think we've seen all we need to see about someone. Yet God still sees someone precious. That "yet" gives me a firm foundation when I'm rejected, but it also makes me pause when I'm ready to reject someone else.
Stay blessed...john
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