Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
Reflection: Chosen in Love
There are times when we wonder whether we’re good enough. Good enough for the task before us. Good enough for other people. Perhaps even good enough for God.
Yet, right at the beginning of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul turns that way of thinking upside down. Before we have done anything to earn it, prove ourselves or make ourselves worthy, God has already acted. Notice when Paul says that choosing began: “before the foundation of the world” – He means before our successes and failures, before the things we are proud of and the things we wish we could change, God’s love was already reaching out towards us.
Paul goes even further. We aren’t simply welcomed from a distance; we are adopted as God’s children through Jesus Christ, meaning we belong. That can be easy to say, but, we live in a world where acceptance can sometimes feel conditional and we hear ourselves say “are we achieving enough, are we contributing enough, or behaving in the right way – Do we fit in?”
Grace, however, speaks a very different language……
Grace says: You are loved….. You are chosen….. You belong….. That doesn’t mean that God leaves us exactly as we are. Being chosen in love calls us to live differently — to allow that love to shape how we speak, how we serve, how we forgive and how we see those around us.
So, perhaps today we might carry one simple truth with us:
Before we ever reach out to God, God has already reached out to us.
Prayer
Loving God,
thank you that your love does not depend upon what we achieve
or how successful we are.
When we doubt our worth,
remind us that we are loved.
When we feel that we don’t belong,
remind us that we belong to you.
Help us to live as people shaped by your grace,
sharing with others the love
that you have so freely given to us.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
