When Samuel surprised Saul with the news that God chose him to be the first king of Israel, Saul objected – But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin?”

Perhaps the reason for the size of the tribe of Benjamin ran through Saul’s mind. The rest of Israel nearly wiped out his tribe in a civil war only a few generations before. The few remaining men of the tribe took wives in a violent fashion and started over. A rough bunch of distant relatives. Saul descended from wild hill people, looked down upon by the rest of the nation.

Of course, the Lord then picked one of their members as the first king of Israel. Saul couldn’t believe it, and others agreed, but the Lord got the man he wanted.

No family background precludes anyone from the Lord’s grace, just as no pedigree ensures the hand of the Lord’s blessing. The Lord looks with fresh eyes on every single person born into this world.

The Lord chose a kid from the sticks to become king. Who knows how the Lord might work in and through you and me and others around us?

Because everyone is just a kid from somewhere.

1 Samuel 9 in week seventeen of reading the Bible cover to cover