Chosen by Tami Cinquemani

I remember walking home from school when I was about 16 years old. I happened to be walking alone this day. A young man called to me from the other side of the street and asked for my assistance. He told me that he was joining a fraternity and, as an initiation ritual, he had to find someone to throw a pie in his face. He wanted me to cross the street and come into the alley where he was standing next to his car and help him out. I grew up in Chicago, and my parents “didn’t raise no dummy.” I picked up my pace and got out of there.

Looking back at that story now gives me chills. I wonder if another teen wasn’t quite so cautious. Not every tragedy made it into the nightly news back in the early Seventies, so I wouldn’t necessarily have known. I look back at that moment now, and I have no doubt that it was listening to a combination of my parent’s tutelage and the Holy Spirit’s guidance that kept me safe. I believe that even though I wasn’t a Christian at the time.

The truth is, even though I didn’t become a Christian until I was an adult, I am confident that God didn’t let that small detail prevent Him from loving me and communicating with me. How I reacted and what choices I make in my life have always been at my discretion, but I believe God has always been by my side.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:11: “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,” and in Romans 5:8: “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We are ALL His “Chosen”, and each one of us were in Christ’s mind’s eye as he hung on that cross.

We are surrounded by people of all faiths – and no faith. Good people and bad people. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists, etc. Sinners and . . . well, more sinners. God has chosen us ALL. This means that every human being has the SAME value and importance to God with each person having freedom to respond differently to God’s love, grace and offers of relationship. As difficult as it is for me to comprehend, that’s just as true for me as it is for the next teen to pass that alley, and even the young man standing next to the car.

Tami Cinquemani