Born Into Rejection

Have you ever felt, even with all the well-meaning people around you – friends, family, loved ones – that somehow you're different; somehow you don't belong; somehow you're just not the same as everyone else? And it's a lonely place to be, isn't it? I think we've all felt that somewhere along the line. No matter what anyone says or does, how much others might encourage you, you still feel rejected. And it strikes at your deepest possible sense of worth and of self. For some, it's a chronic disease they live out day after day. I know it well, because that was me for the first forty or so years of my life. Rejection. That's what it amounts to. Whether real or imagined, it doesn't matter. It hurts. Earlier this week, we looked at this passage, heading into Christmas as we are: Luke 2:7 She gave birth to her first son. She wrapped him up well and laid him in a box where cattle are fed. She put him there because the guest room was full. When you think about it, both symbolically and in reality, Jesus was born into rejection. Though He was the long-awaited Messiah, the world He entered neither recognised Him nor welcomed Him. John 1:11  He came to the world that was his own. And his own people did not accept him. Yet He entered this world for you. To be with you in your place of aloneness, in your place of rejection. He totally gets it! In a very real sense, that's what Christmas is all about. God becoming one of us … for you. That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.