The Last One Chosen

Yesterday, Austin and I were able to go home to Ash Grove for the day and spend some time with my family. It was my little brother's 20th birthday and today is my dad's birthday, so we had a nice day of church and lunch with the family. Dad preached a great sermon on David and it made me think.

When Samuel went to the house of Jesse to choose Israel's newest leader, he instructed Jesse to invite ALL of his sons to the sacrifice and meal. But as we all know, not all of them were included. One of them was left out in the field to tend to the sheep. Dad compared this situation to a game of kickball on the playground. We all know the drill. You choose captains and everyone else lines up. One by one, names are called and kids scamper to join their teams. More names get called and the line slowly dwindles to two. Then it's down to one. The last one chosen. The one that nobody really wanted on their team, but chose out of necessity. I don't know about you, but I've been there. And it stinks. I have never been particularly talented in the area of sports, but I have ALWAYS had a strong desire to be included and fit in, so situations like this were awful for me. I think that everyone has this desire to some degree. But think about David again. He wasn't even invited to the line up. He was left in the fields. Talk about a bad feeling. There are times when I've been excluded from certain groups or left out of activities. That feeling is hands down worse than being chosen last. It makes you begin to question your worth, your value. Think for a moment how David must have felt. I'm sure that he knew what was going on. He knew that Samuel was in town and that he had important business with his family. But rather than being included, David was sent out to tend the sheep. A task that Jesse could have easily given to someone else. I imagine that he was crushed as he walked out into the field and his father and brothers went off to see who would be chosen as king.

But things worked out for David in the end, we all know this. He was the one that God chose first. You see, God isn't bound by the standards of greatness that we create. He sees the value and potential in every single person. When we look at a person, we don't choose them because of their stature, appearance, political beliefs, background, color, education, etc....the list could go on forever. We have become so caught up in things that don't matter that we're doing the same thing that Jesse did. We won't even invite certain people to the line-up because we are so convinced that God could never use them.

I had never thought of the fact that David wasn't the last one chosen, he was excluded from the process altogether. How awful that must have felt. But God had other plans for him. God saw his potential, just as He sees ours.