WANTED!

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” – Zephaniah 3:17

One of the things I find intriguing about history are wanted posters. It started when I was a third grader. In school I was given an assignment to create a biographical scrapbook of Abraham Lincoln. As I looked for different visual pieces to place into my scrapbook, I came across the wanted poster produced by the War Department for John Wilkes Booth and the other conspirators responsible for Lincoln’s assassination. It was a cool piece of history and a lasting memory of my project.

Of course, this isn’t the only wanted poster of note. Over the years, many famous or infamous people have been featured on the walls of police stations and post offices. Many of the gangsters of the early to mid-twentieth century found themselves on wanted posters. As recently as the 2003, people produced a deck of playing cards featuring the 55 most-wanted people stemming from the military conflict between the United States and Iraq. Today, wanted posters have been replaced with digital billboards, thus allowing people to be aware of the dangerous people around them without having to stop looking at their phone to do so.

So why take this little stroll through history? I guess it makes a connection for me as I think about something that most people have in common: a desire to feel wanted. Ok, it’s a weird connection, but bear with me. Doing something that would land your picture on a wanted poster is obviously not a goal to which people should aspire. That said, feeling wanted is important to most of us. When you go to work, you want your colleagues to welcome you and to appreciate your contributions. When you go home, you want to be greeted with warmth and love from your family. We gather with friends so we can share common experiences, but more importantly, to build connections that make us feel wanted.

Have you ever been in a place where you felt unwanted? Even for just a short amount of time. Were you ever the last person chosen when picking teams on the playground? Ever play the role of third wheel because you didn’t have a date for a dance? Have you been cut from a team? Did you ever get dumped by your girlfriend/boyfriend? Have you been fired from a job? These losses can leave anyone feeling abandoned, undesired, and alone. Usually, that feeling comes and goes as you replace what was lost with something different and new. However, not every loss can be remedied by a simple replacement.

There are people living alone, despite living with a large family. There are people who have hundreds of friends but feel no connection with them. There are married people who cohabitate but withhold the intimate connection of being married from one another. There are widows and widowers who keep themselves as busy as possible to cope with the void they feel in their hearts created by the loss of their spouse. Chances are you know people struggling with loneliness right now.

Crazy as it may sound, God is not unfamiliar with this. Think back to the creation account in Genesis. God created the mankind so that He might have a relationship with us. He designed the universe in such a way to provide for us everything we would need to feel His presence at all times and in all places. He recognized that the man He created needed a suitable companion, prompting Him to create Eve from Adam’s rib. When sin destroyed God’s perfect plan, His love for His people moved Him to implement a new plan; Jesus sacrificing His life for ours. Even as the Son of God hung on the cross, He cried out in a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That moment of anguish and despair proves that Christ Himself understands the pain that comes from being alone. It also shows the depths to which God would go to save us; to bring us back into the relationship He originally desired.

That is how much God loves you, how much He wants to be with you today and forever.

We can be assured that He is with us. He is our protection from attacks, our strength when we are weak. He gives us rest when we grow weary and is our constant companion that we need not feel alone. May we trust in this promise and rely upon God to deliver us safely to Heaven where we may not see a poster, but where we will see with our own eyes just how wanted we truly are.

Devotion by Richard Schumacher

LSEM Director of Programs & Services