Why does rejection hurt so much?

The message came through on Friday. A short one. They went with someone else. Or the group chat kept going without you. Or the seat next to someone you love stayed empty all weekend. That specific sting, the one that sits in your chest on a Monday morning, is not weakness. It is one of the oldest human pains there is. And here is what is worth knowing: the one you are reading about in Isaiah 53 did not just observe rejection from a safe distance. He walked straight into it.

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."

- Isaiah 53:3 (KJV)

Today, before you scroll past the person who hurt you or pull further back from the group that left you out, write down one true thing about yourself that has nothing to do with their opinion of you. One thing. Put it somewhere you will see it before tonight.

God, rejection cuts deep and I am feeling it today. Remind me that you were rejected too, and that it did not have the final word over you. Let it not have the final word over me either. Amen.