The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. – Deuteronomy 7:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 6, 2012): Deuteronomy 7

Growing up one of the significant happenings of the summer was always the return of Garry Unger (a professional hockey player) to my Calgary church. Garry would step into the sanctuary and all of us kids would lose interest in anything that was happening in the service. All of our attention, no matter how hard we tried to resist, was centered on that back row of worship service where the guy with the long blond hair sat with a couple of friends (who we did not know.) All that was important was that we were going to see Garry Unger after the service. We knew Garry Unger – except that we really did not – he had no idea who we were.

Some people seem to have a need to know people of significance – and to drop those names into their casual communications. This past summer I had a chance to sit with a friend and talk, and inwardly I smiled at the list of people that came up in our conversation that he knew. It did not seem like he was even working to get the names in. Every single name seemed to effortlessly fit into the conversation that we were having – and names he shared were all famous and they were all his personal friends. It is a danger that we all might face. Sometimes it seems that we gain some sort of significance or reason to belong all from whom it is that we know.

Moses removes any illusion that God had chosen them because of their significance. They were not the best on the block, nor were they even friends with the best. And yet Israel had absolutely nothing to prove. God had simply chosen them. He loved them in spite of their lack of significance.

God has continues to show his partiality for the underdog. He is the God who is concerned with widow and the orphan. He takes care of those who have no one else to take care of them. As I sat with my friend, it quickly became apparent that he simply needed to know that he was respected. But the problem was that rather than respect, his parade of names was more likely to garner him pity. And I wondered if he had maybe forgotten the love and esteem that God already held for him. Then, as he continued to talk, a parade started in my mind of the humble servants of Christ that I knew that shared that same esteem. The world would be a much poorer place without them – even though few would ever know their names.

Maybe the practice that we need to develop is to parade the names of the humble people that play such a big part in lives. I think maybe it is their names – rather than the names of the famous -  that are on the lips of God.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 8