History reveals the truth of these verses:
The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone;
the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Psalm 118:22,23 and Mark 12:10,11

Jesus,
from “despised and rejected by men”
and
“cut off from the land of the living”
(Isaiah 53:3,8)
to the chief cornerstone.

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
in whom the whole building, being fitted together,
grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
in whom you also are being built together
for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:19-22

As I was thinking about this verse,
I realized that many times there are experiences in our lives
that we would like to reject, not have to go through.
Yet, after we have gone through them,
we find that the experience has been pivotal,
providing something that we can now see as having molded and shaped us
into better instruments for His use
or opened opportunities for ministry that we had previously not seen,
and we are grateful, thanking God for that which we initially wanted to reject.

To ponder:
Was there some experience in your life
that you would have put on your “reject” (unwanted!) list,
but you have found it to be something
that profoundly changed the direction of your life in some way?
Perhaps it became a major teaching tool
or shaping instrument in your life,
or it may have it opened opportunities in ministry
you had not been aware of earlier.

Twila Charles Leichty – L9