Selecting captains and having them choose teams is one of the most cruelest things you could put a child through.  This is especially true for the child who knows that they will probably be chosen last but yet continue to hold out hope that they won’t be last.  Do you remember this scene?  Do you remember standing on the playground waiting for teams to be chosen so you can play?  I remember this oh too well and it brings back painful memories.

You stand in a crowd of other kids waiting to be chosen.  Person after person is chosen ahead of you.  You see the excitement of those who have been chosen.  They are itching to get started, but you just hope you get to play.  Finally the captains are down to the last two people; where you are at.  "Please choose me" you say.  But the selection is in and the captain chooses the other person.  You are the last one standing and are chosen by default.  But are you really chosen?  No one wants to be the default person; we want to be chosen.  To be chosen means that someone believes you are valuable.  Of all the other people they could have chosen, they choose you.  What a feeling that is.  A husband and wife choose each other.  Friends choose each other.  An employer chooses employees.  We like to be chosen. We like to know we are valuable, important and that we matter to someone.

In the Gospel of John chapter 15 verse 16 Jesus says, "You did not choose me but I chose you" Wow!  Jesus chooses me?  Can this actually be true?  You betcha it is true.  We don’t choose God because the world seems to offer a better argument why they should be chosen.  So God is left as the last one standing and we choose God because we might as well, God is there.  And if our salvation was dependant on our choice, well, I don’t need to tell you where that would leave us.  Rather Jesus says, "I choose you.  I choose you when no one else will.  I choose you even if you won’t choose me.  You are my child and you will never be un-chosen"  The joy of the Gospel is that God loved us so much that God gave His one and only Son that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have everlasting life.  You are chosen.  You are valuable.  You are important.  And you matter to someone; you matter to God.  Praise be to God and Amen!