We’ve reached the top of the ladder!  The highest of heights!   We are elites… a passenger category on a major cruise line.  We started out as nobodies, moved up to gold, higher yet to platinum.   Now… elites!  Only took countless dollars to get there, but we have arrived!  What do we get for this premier status?  First on-board the ship… along with a few thousand others.  ELITE!  I can hear the other passengers singing a slightly off-key chorus of  ‘what do you want, a medal?’!

There’s another category that’s better yet.   Better than elite?  Much better!  Mark 13.  Jesus talks to His disciples about the end times.  He shares the horrors that tribulation will bring.  We, His children, will not all escape unscathed.  No, but Jesus promises that ‘…for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days'(verse 20).  ‘The elect, whom He chose…’ We’re elect, chosen by the Lord!  Better than elite!

Elect… and I didn’t even run for office!  Elect means that someone else did the choosing.  I wonder who that could be?!  When I have to do the choosing, it makes me nervous. Years ago at a local Covenant Church camp,  I was captain of a volleyball team called, rather creatively, ‘Head Lice’!  After I chose the team members, some were happy, and some were noticeably unhappy for they called me the Head Louse!  Nasty bunch, those Christians!

I hated being chosen by someone else as I was usually picked at or near the bottom of the pile.  Felt like such a loser.  But not with Him.   When it comes to the Lord, He reaches out to us.  No one He chooses is a loser.  No one begrudgingly asked onto His team.  He lovingly wants each one of us on His team, the Church of Jesus Christ.  He even shortens those tough times in our lives.  He does.

If you seek Him, you’ll find Him discovering that He’s been searching for you since the beginning of time.  Not a rash choice on His part.  For we’ve been chosen from before the creation of the world( Ephesians 1:4).  If the Bible says it, that settles it.  Agreed?

When times get tough and hatred of Christians intensifies as it most certainly will,  praise the Lord!  What?  Are you crazy?  No,  James, the brother of our Lord Jesus, says,  ‘Count it all joy…whenever(not ‘if’) you face various trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops…'(James 1: 2-3).  So, don’t worry about having to pick or be picked…we’re chosen!  His choice children!  Yes, we are!   Keep your head up high…we’re heaven bound!  Nothing and no one can bind us to this dreadful world when Jesus calls us His own!

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for choosing us for yourself.   We praise your name.  Amen.