Jesus believes in you...

I'm indebted to Rob Bell for these thoughts...

Rob says that in first century Jewish culture rabbis started weeding out the best potential students by age 6 and by 13 or 14 they either had it or they didn't. If a rabbi didn't feel that a student was the best of the best, he sent him home to the family business or to learn a common trade, like fishing. A rabbi wasn't going to waste his time with a youth who didn't have it.

That's why it was so revolutionary and so radical when the Rabbi of rabbis came on the scene and looked at a bunch of fishermen - a bunch of other rabbi's rejects and saw potential in them. Instead of asking the best of the best to follow him, Jesus asked the rejects!

One of the things that is so amazing about this, as Rob points out, is that this shows that Jesus looks at us and believes in us. Jesus thinks that you can be like him! And he invites you to follow him because he believes in you!