Ever feel that you are "Damaged goods"?

When choosing fruit at the market or supermarket what do you do with bruised or damaged articles? Do you buy them as you know that underneath the fruit will still be edible or do you leave those for others to take or for the store to compost?

For some of us, we feel like that fruit, bruised and battered by life. We may have been told that we are worthless, no good at anything, that we're not pretty or intelligent, a waste of space. We may be disabled, have mental health issues or been seriously bullied or abused. The result is that we've come to accept that that's our lot in life, we're not like other “normal” people, we're “damaged goods”.

But God doesn't look at us like that. Writing in the Bible, the prophet Isaiah (Is 56 v 3) passed on God's message that no (physically disabled) person is ever to think “I'm damaged goods. I don't really belong.” (The Message) God made us, so it can't be in His nature not to love something that He created. True we may not be super-intelligent or especially talented, but God looks at what's in our heart, not what we look like. To Him, we're beautiful.

God wants us to achieve our full potential and not be held back by the world's skewed view of what’s important in life. Or more to the point, who's important. He loves each one of us and sent His son to die for us, irrespective of who or what we are.

Later Isaiah records that God not only lives in high and holy places, but also with those who are low in spirit or whose spirit has been crushed by life's burdens. If that's you, why not reach out to God, take Him at His word and invite Him to live in your heart? When we do, we become part of His family and like when someone buys the damaged fruit, we have been chosen.

And don't forget, you really do belong!