So I felt a little rejected when they chose teams for softball. Yup. Last one chosen. Poor me. And how about the time when I was the only one on the hayride without a date.
I feel a little ashamed of some of those "poor me" flashbacks when I read about those girls in India. Hundreds of them whose actual names mean "unwanted" in Hindi. Every day of their lives they've answered to the name "unwanted." Some of them got the name simply because they were a disappointment when they were born. Whatever the reason, "unwanted" is a horrible way to be branded for life.
But those girls made the news this week because they just got new names. Names that have meanings like "beautiful." They came wearing their best outfits, with barrettes and braids and bows, as district officials in their part of India gave them certificates with their new names on them.
Sadly, there are tons of people - maybe even someone reading this - who have felt like they've been "unwanted" most of their life, too. You don't have to carry the name to have the feeling. And in the often cruel world we live in, people really do make you feel like you don't belong...that you're never good enough...that they don't particularly care if you're there or not.
Honestly, if we put our sense of worth in the hands of other humans, they are almost surely going to drop it, crush it or stomp on it sometime. On purpose or unknowingly. Either way, it feels crummy.
Then along comes Someone who says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3). Someone who never lies and always delivers. There really is Someone who has always wanted you. So much that He's pursued you at great cost. All the way to a rugged old cross where He gave His life so He wouldn't lose you.
Actually, the problem isn't that God doesn't want us. It's that we don't want Him. Oh, we're okay with a God who runs the universe as long as we can run our own universe. We want God as a belief, a religious pacifier, a cozy blanket when it's cold, a spiritual ace to play when we die. But when it comes to God actually running our lives - just call Him "unwanted."
So we've cut ourselves off from the One who loves us more than anyone. All our God-ignoring sins have set us up for an eternity without Him - because sin separates us from a sinless God.
But Jesus was God who came looking for us. In His words, he came to "seek and save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). He suffered for your sinning so you would never have to. So you could be with Him for all eternity. That's how very wanted you are - by the most important Person in the galaxies.
There's a story of a little boy who built a toy sailboat with his Daddy. His father let little Scotty glue it and sand it and paint it and name it - "Arthur," for some reason. And Scotty couldn't wait to get his masterpiece in the lake nearby. But on "Arthur's" maiden voyage, a big storm came up and quickly blew that sailboat far beyond a little boy's reach and sight.When Scotty ran to his Daddy heartbroken, his father offered to buy him a replacement. Scotty was adamant that he wanted his boat back.
Then came the amazing discovery at the little store downtown. Scotty saw his boat in the window! He ran into the store and asked the man if he could have it. "Sure," the owner told him. "For 20 bucks." That must have sounded like a million dollars to a little boy, but he went back home and to his neighbors, asking for any job he could get paid for. One day, Scotty walked into that store proudly and plunked down his hard-earned 20 dollars.
He ran all the way home with that sailboat wrapped tightly in his arms. His father was home - so Scotty jumped into his lap with one arm around Daddy and one arm around "Arthur." And he gushed out what his heart could not contain: "Daddy, I love this boat so much. Because now it's twice mine. Once, because I made it. And once, because I paid for it!"
That's how Jesus feels about you. He loves you so much - because you're twice His. Once, because He made you. And once, because He paid for you - with His life. And on the day you welcome Him into your life, He'll give you a glorious new name. "To all who received Him...He gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12).