Fierce Love

— Isaiah 56:8

READ: Isaiah 56:1-8

REFLECT: The backyard party had begun. Adults chatted in small groups while young children made a playful racket around them. My three-year-old twin girls clung to my legs, timidly observ­ing the activity. I peeled them off and encouraged them to join their friends.
 
One daughter approached the sandbox, and a boy her age read­ily made room for her. My other daughter, the more timid, finally worked up the courage to approach two girls playing dress-up. She was less fortunate. “We don’t want you to play with us,” one said, and the other agreed. Then the pair ran off, leaving my daughter alone in the sadness of her first social rebuff. I fought back tears.

Isaiah 56 reminds me of that party. Although I love my two girls equally, that day I felt more fiercely my love for the one who was rejected. In the same way, God gathers in the ones no one wants and says, “These are my beloved children!” Scripture is filled with similar passages that express God’s protective love for those on the outside.
 
If you are feeling excluded and downtrodden, know that God is by your side. Call on God to demonstrate his fierce love for you. If you are among those comfortably sheltered in a community of friends and family, take note of those on the outside. Humbly reach out to them, for God stands by their side and says, “They are mine.” And those who belong to God belong to our family.