Rachel Whisman

“You whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its furthest corners, saying to you, ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off.” Isaiah 41:9

Cleats, no. Experience…just enough to be sufficient for the cause. Talent…lacking much. Soccer, fútbol, whatever you call it, has never been the sport I’d choose to play. Yet, my friends and I gathered to play a game on a darling and balmy Sunday. Captains were chosen and they picked schoolyard style. People were selected due to their talent and as the choices were shrinking I remained in place. Humbly, I know my place in this situation due to my lack of qualifications besides my bubbly and sometimes too energetic personality. I found myself to be the last one standing. I don’t even know if you can say I was chosen for a team, with me being dead last. Yet, on a team I was and the only thing I brought was mad defensive fouls, exquisite distractions for the other team, and a good team spirit. At least I brought something to this game. I wasn’t dead meat. 

In stark contrast, however, in life, when I read Isaiah 41:9, I am reminded that we brought nothing to God. He drew near to us. “You whom I took from the furthest corners” We were in no rush to go to God. We had no desire to even do so. We were on our highway to hell. We were not impressive nor could flattery in ourselves justify us. God even reminds us of this in Deuteronomy 7:7-8 to humble us, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all people, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping His oath that He swore to your fathers. The motive was God’s love. That is what He acted upon to rescue us. Nothing outside of Him compelled Him to save us. He “made an oath” not the forefathers, but Him. He enacted it and He would fulfill it. No one forced Him nor bribed Him to prove his worth. He, Himself acted out of who He is. On the flip side, we acted out of who we were, and Ephesians 2:1,3 reminds us just of that, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked…and were by nature children of wrath,” (Ephesians 2:1,3). One theologian reminds me, “What do dead things do? Nothing, and they begin to stink.” Nothing in us could save us, we needed Jesus and praise be that He came. Once again we find God’s love being what motivated Him a little bit later in Ephesians 2:4-5, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved.”

Last Pick. I was the last pick in soccer, but Christ was ultimately the last pick from our vantage point that mesmerized everyone. God, coming in the form of the last thing we would expect, a human. Jesus, healing and touching those who were the rejects, last picks. Jesus, taking on our sins and the wrath of God. He was the last one we would have chosen, but praise be to God that our all-wise Father chose His son as the first option. Jesus was the first pick from our loving Father’s plan and “there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?” Isaiah 43:13. God owns what He does and stands by it. We have a strong God and defender in Him. We can trust Him. How refreshing it is of how sure our Father is in His work. My prayer is that your heart may take courage in that fact as well that it is done out of His love and no one else’s.

“Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength! We will sing and praise your power.” Psalm 22:13