I love the line that Misty Edwards sings, “Jesus, here I am, Your favorite one.” One time I quoted it to a friend and from the look on his face, you would have thought I said, “Jesus is going to eat me for dinner tonight.”
He asked me incredulously, “You don’t really believe that, do you?”
“Sure I do.” I replied. “But I think you’re His favorite one too!”
I 100% believe that each of us is Jesus favorite one, but how does that work logistically? Wouldn’t all of us being His favorite essentially make none of us a favorite? I mean, the very nature of favorite implies singling out.
Let’s pretend that you’re taking one of those amazing quizzes that are perpetually making the rounds of the internet:
- What is your favorite movie? “Sound of Music”
- What is your favorite food? “Corn on the cob”
- What is your favorite animal? “Platypus”
What if the next question demanded, “Now, of those 3, which is your favorite?” It’s a ridiculous question, because they are all your favorites. One can’t be chosen over the other, as each item is from a different category and impossible to really compare with the others.
I think that may be how the Lord looks at each of us. He doesn’t view humanity as a mass and say, “Well, I like that one’s nose better, but this one has better social skills, and the one over there sings prettier.” He doesn’t compare us based on each other.
Rather, I imagine He sees us each in our own category, made unique by Him, with our own individual characteristics, talents, smile, temperament and worship to bring Him. To Jesus, a new genre was unveiled when every one of us was born: incomparable to those around us, completely different from anything else He’s ever made.
We love to judge ourselves by the person next to us, but Jesus’ only measurement is based on who He created us to be, totally non-contingent on other people. He says, “You’re the perfect Hannah!” “Rob! Wow, just what I imagined!” “You’re so good at being Kelly!” “You’re exactly what Tim should be!” “I love how you do that Kevin thing!”
He looks at you and says, “You’re my favorite one!”
I really like this, Hannah.