Excerpt from I Samuel 16:6

"When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, 'Surely the Lord's anointed is now before God.' But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature because I have rejected him."

Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson

God has a preferential option for...the unlikely. When God got the redemption project going, God chose for his start-up a couple of old coots, Abraham and Sarah, impossibly beyond the age of bearing even one kid much less a whole people.

Here, in I Samuel, when God was showing Samuel whom to anoint as king, the eldest, buffest and tallest all got a thumbs down from the Almighty. God went for a young kid, David, with hay in his hair and stars in his eyes. And when God needed a place to have a Savior born, God bypassed power-center Jerusalem for "tiny Bethlehem."

It happens over and over again in our story. God has a preferential option for the unlikely.

This seems to me good news for people and places that may not be hearing much good news.

Like small churches. In a culture of bigger is better, small churches can seem impossibly unlikely. Small church, God can use you.

Or like people with who've failed (for some other illustrious failures check out Moses and Paul). You may have failed, but God can use you.

Like the person who is no longer young, and whose age may cause their job application to be rejected. Take heart wrinkled one: our God has a preferential option for the unlikely.

Prayer

God whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways, thank you for your strange, astonishing and surprising ways. Amen.

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About the Author Tony Robinson, a United Church of Christ minister, is a speaker, teacher and writer. His most recent book is Changing the Conversation: A Third Way for Congregations. Read his weekly reflections on the current lectionary texts at www.anthonybrobinson.com/ by clicking on Weekly Reading.