I was on the phone with someone the other day and they said nonchalantly...you are one of my favorite people. That phrase always stops me in my tracks because I am a woman who has no favorites. I am not talking about people....I don't have a favorite anything; movie, drink, supper, color, place, ice-cream etc. This drives my daughter crazy who has favorite everything. But to be a favorite person...wow, that makes my whole day. I wonder how one becomes a favorite. As parents we are warned against having favorites and as a teacher the warning is valid but not do-able. We all have people, friends, students who connect with us in a different ways. I like to be with some students more then I like to be with others but I work really hard at making sure no-one knows who so that I can treat everyone with the same respect.
I sometimes wonder if God has favorites. He chose Israel. He loved Jacob but hated Esau...David was a man after his own heart but did not have the same to say about Saul or even Solomon. He heals some but not others. Some get an easy ride in life while others suffer. Jesus chose three out of the twelve to be spend more time with...maybe they were his favorite. This makes us uncomfortable, what if I am not a favorite of God. What if I am one of the many in the crowd that followed Jesus but were never named or taken aside for special treatment. Like one of the 5000 who experienced the blessing of eating but was never part of the relationship. Even as I write this I am uncomfortable...am I a favorite?
Maybe...maybe if God is our favorite, we are His. I am not saying favorite god amongst all the others we have...like a flavor of ice cream. Mijo and Nick are my favorite children, I have no other. I love other children and think them wonderful but no one will grab my heart ever the way these children of mine will. Is it the same with God...or is that the same with me. He is God, I have no other.
Don't you want to be His favorite...are we already? If we all are then no one is...Does it matter?
That's what I am thinking about this AM....
4 comments:
Heidi - your blog gives my brain blisters - How can you think so deeply so early in the day???
I have heard people say that God isn't fair. In his SS classes, my husband teaches that God is the source of fairness. He is beyond being fair as humans think of it - to being where fairness is sourced.
I'm thinking that God is also beyond favorites. He is beyond human responses and is the source of all that is.
Does that make sense? - lew
Yes and no...What God does is always beyond what we understand yet in the same time we are called to have the mind of Christ...to seek to understand even if it s glimpse of a glimpse...God can do and be whatever He is and does...but from where we look it can be confusing. We really don't want God to be fair...we want Grace which is alwyas out of proportion to what is deserved. You always make me think..this I love
I love the way you think - you are becoming one of my favorite writers!
Sharon E
thank you...wow, that makes my whole day again!
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