I'm His Favorite

Most Friday mornings, you can find me sitting with several friends having coffee. We meet, drink coffee, and solve the world's problems.  I (being the techie that I am) take my iPad. That way, when we have questions without answers, I can Google them and voilà! We have instant answers to our many inquiries about life. We meet early and stay late--laughing, talking, and sometimes even crying. Well. Usually, that's just me, but whatever!

One morning during said coffee time, my friend chuckled as she remembered a t-shirt she had recently seen. The front of the T-shirt had this quote on it--Jesus loves you, but I'm his favorite. She said that she immediately thought of me. We all had a good laugh over that t-shirt. Of course, I was sitting there thinking — I so want that shirt! Why? Because I am his favorite.

I knew that I would have to process what God was saying to me later, through our conversation about the t-shirt. You see, that quote began to roll around in my brain, and God wasn't (no matter how hard I tried) going to let me forget about it. So, I just prayed and asked God to show me what he wanted me to know. Over the next few weeks, he did. Slowly. I'm thinking it was slow so that I'd never forget it. By the time he was done with the lesson on that little quote--well, I'd be sure, I'd know for certainty--I was his favorite.

And while praying one morning, he began to show me all the times he had gone after me. As in--the shepherd going after that one lost, wandering lamb. His favorite. I cried and thanked him for going after me. He is always faithful, even when I am not.

Thinking about the quote on that t-shirt and thinking about Jesus, my shepherd, always finding me, well,  it made me feel safe. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I was loved, cared for, and protected. And then I thought--if he always goes after me and finds me--why don't I trust him with my loved ones? Won't he also go after the ones I love so much and pray for daily? Aren't they his favorites, too?

If you think I cried before, you should have seen me that morning. There I was sitting in my rocking chair, crying, praying, and asking God to bring these people whom I love so much--bring them back to you, God, show yourself to them, please God. I was begging him. And then he spoke to my heart and said--they're my favorites too. I'm going after them--don't you worry. I'll never leave them or forsake them; I'll draw them back to me. I promise.

That was a great morning, just having the assurance that my God, my savior, would go after them just like he always does for me. He'll rescue them, he'll protect them, he'll find them--because they're his favorites. And I am too. Jesus loves us, and we're his favorites!