Chosen

     I talked in one of my previous post posts, Love and Be Loved, about the importance of each person needing someone's face to light up when they enter the room and to feel loved in that way. This past week I got to see the importance of feeling chosen and loved first hand…

    Meet Allan. This boy is precious, but he doesn't often feel loved. He lives in a family where he is overlooked and neglected. Because of this neglect and possible abuse, Allan is very closed off. He is sweet and affectionate, but rarely really opens his heart to share and in reality rarely speaks. In fact, the first time that my girls met Allan, Juanita asked me if he was mute because she didn't hear him speak one time in the hour that they hung out. Allan will sometimes speak to me, but still not often.

   This past week I had the privilege to go and tell sweet Allan that he has been sponsored for school. I talked to Allan about his sponsorship and what that meant. I also told him, "Allan you are SO special. There is an entire group of students at a church and all the kids together were going to choose one kid to sponsor. One really special kid. And they chose YOU. Out of all the children, they chose YOU." Allan's face lit up with a huge smile across his entire face. Then, something amazing happened…

    I watched a transformation take place in Allan. He sat drawing a picture for the children's group that is sponsoring him (pictured below left). I watched his heart come more and more alive. He spent all afternoon by my side visiting houses with Claudia and me. The most incredible part was that Allan talked all afternoon. He talked and laughed all afternoon. I heard him talk more in this two hour span than I have heard him speak in the entire time that I've known him. It was the power of love, the transformative power of feeling chosen that unlocked his heart. It's because our hearts were made to be chosen and loved by our Father.

"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. In love, He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves." -Ephesians 1:3-6

    And our hearts rejoice and come alive in our choseness.