As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, (I Peter 2:4,5 ESV)
Rejection
I liked my first truck. It was an ugly green, sported a rusty bumper, smelled like old plumbing parts, and was not a popular model. When other folk saw my truck, they laughed, frowned, or ignored it. It was rejected by nearly everyone.
But I knew what was under the hood, and more importantly, in the transmission. Not that I raced, but I was rarely beaten when the light turned green. I had umph and kapow when I needed to pass on a highway. It never failed to start on a cold morning or hot afternoon.
It was also, simply, mine.
Rejected by men, but to me it was precious.
If that can taste true with a mess of metal, rubber, and plastic, how much more true is it when it comes to the Christ, and we His people.
The world looks at Christ and laughs, frowns, or ignores Him. But to God Christ is chosen and precious.
And we become precious when we latch on to Him.
When we sense that the world’s rejection of Him affects us, rejoice! Because perhaps we are, too, rejected. But we are also chosen and precious, because of Jesus.
We are peculiar, though rejected, we are also chosen.