Not an Afterthought – July 19, 2021

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
Ephesians 1:3,4

Not an Afterthought

Do you ever feel like an afterthought? You hear that a group of your friends is getting together for dinner. They’ve planned it for weeks. And then, at the last moment, they ask you to join them. “Sure, I guess,” you think to yourself, even though you’re not entirely sure they really want you there. If they did, they would’ve asked weeks ago. You feel like an afterthought.

It doesn’t feel good.

It’s natural to feel that way in our relationship with God, especially when we’re struggling with trouble, sorrow, disappointment, or pain. After all, God is busy. He has an entire creation to care for and billions of people to help. Why in the world would he ever think about you or me individually? How is it possible that we would be important to him? The psalmist put it well when he asked the LORD out loud, “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Psalm 8:4). It’s natural to conclude that we must be an afterthought to God, and who could really blame him?

But, wonder of all wonders, we are not! The apostle Paul reveals to us in Ephesians chapter 1 that our heavenly Father was thinking about us individually even before he drew up plans for the creation of the world. And he wasn’t just thinking about us; he was planning our eternal salvation in Jesus, preparing an eternal home for us in heaven.

That astonishing reality is what prompted the apostle to sing the song of praise that he does in our Bible reading for today. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” And what is the prime spiritual blessing Paul has in mind? The fact that we are not an afterthought to God. You and I are his very first priority!

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing me to know and believe that I am not an afterthought and that you have always loved me. Amen.