"The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone"  ( Psalm 118:22)

The Gospel of Jesus is about lives once shunned but accepted.  When the parents of baby Moses along with his sister Miriam placed him in a papyrus basket which set sail to nowhere only for Pharaoh's daughter to pick him up it was all about a God who picks up the abandoned. The once rejected Moses would grow up to become the saviour of a nation ( Exodus 2:1-8).

Moses's story of abandonment was in the same pattern as was of Joseph. After an attempted murder on his life Joseph was abandoned to slave traders and later sold to the house of Potiphar ( Genesis 39). Falsely accused and abandoned to the dungeon God picked up Joseph to crown him as premier of ancient Egypt. Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the entire land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh removed his signet ring from his hand and placed it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in fine linen clothing and hung a gold chain around his neck"     (Genesis 41:41-2). A life once discarded now having a final say in the affairs of then the greatest nation on earth.

When Jesus was born and Herod sought to kill all baby boys afraid of a prophecy that one would grow up to become King of the Jews, he had to be ferried away into exile to Egypt (Mathew 2:13). From that inauspicious beginning of abandonment he would return to start his ministry of salvation.

No one determines the circumstances of his birth and upbringing. There are countless lives which at birth are rejected. There are many children who grow up in unloving environments characterised with rejection. And in life many adults are thrown out into the streets, like Joseph was. Fortunately, and what a blessing to know, there is a God out there in the business of picking up lives once abandoned and turning them around!

Today, yours could be such a life. You might have been rejected at birth by your very family members. In life you might have found yourself thrown out by your very own. Do not be discouraged. Out there is a God who sees all and is about to pick you up and restore you to your very right place as He did and has never ceased to do for all who belong to him!

Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, you are the God who picks and turns around lives once abandoned and so I pray that anyone who feels rejected may come to you for restoration, this I pray in Jesus' name!