Adding It All Up

I have friends who would probably ask this question from Romans 9.  In fact, I believe at some point I asked this question myself:
¹⁹Are you going to object, "So how can God blame us for anything since he's in charge of everything? If the big decisions are already made, what say do we have in it?"

Paul, in his usual "I'm not messing around here, folks, I used to be a Pharisee" kind of way answers that question this way:

 ^20-33Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? 

Oh!  Uh, good point.

He continues:

Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? 

Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn't it?

Clay doesn't talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, "Why did you shape me like this?" Isn't it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn't that all right? Either or both happens to Jews, but it also happens to the other people. 

I suppose the challenge here is simply to figure out what kind of pottery I am.  But Paul is right, whatever that is -- if I created it, I'd certainly be offended if it looked at me and questioned my decisions about what it was.

Hosea put it well: 

   I'll call nobodies and make them somebodies;
      I'll call the unloved and make them beloved.
   In the place where they yelled out, "You're nobody!"
      they're calling you "God's living children."

And this is wonderful proof of why God is decidedly not human in any way.  He takes the ones we'd consider unimportant and gives them a high position simply because they belong to Him.  

   Isaiah maintained this same emphasis:
   If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered
      and the sum labeled "chosen of God,"
   They'd be numbers still, not names;
      salvation comes by personal selection.
   God doesn't count us; he calls us by name.
      Arithmetic is not his focus.

Nope, God is definitely not about math.  And it's a good thing (for me), because I'm terrible at it.  

We are not nameless faces in a long line.

We are not social security numbers.

We are not tax forms for the IRS to sort.

We are not annoyances caught in voicemail hell.

We are not children or people.  In my case, I'm Jenny.  God knows me personally.  He didn't create a person, or a child.  He created Jenny.  And He created you as well.

In a world where we treat one another as statistics and equations, it is wonderful to remember that the God to whom we belong see us as who we really are.  And we are priceless --

because He said so.

xoxoxox