It’s been this way ever since you can remember.

You’re the kid who got picked last in gym class. The friend they forgot to invite to the birthday party. The daughter or son who went unheard.

Overlooked. Unwanted. Alone and cut off from everybody else.

Sometimes the feeling punches you in the gut and leaves. Other times it lingers for months on end.

You think of the time a coworker misunderstood your intentions and spread a hurtful rumor. The friend who cancelled every plan you made and lost touch. The family member who chipped away at your confidence, telling you with snide remarks and lack of attention that you simply didn’t matter.

A voice, somewhere inside you, tells you nobody cares.

Where You Belong

But God cares about you more than you can imagine. The Bible tells us that God—the Creator of the universe—wants to be in your presence and hear your sorrows (Psalm 56:8).

Jesus felt unwanted and rejected just like you. Isaiah 53:3 says, “We despised him and rejected him; he endured suffering and pain. No one would even look at him—we ignored him as if he were nothing.” Jesus understands your suffering, and he wants to hear about your pain (Psalm 55:22).

More than that, God wants to be in your presence—he delights in you (Zephaniah 3:17).

Want to know more about how God feels about you? Take some time to grab a coffee, find a quiet space, and reflect on these verses that show you’ll always belong with God:

God loves you so much that he wants to call you his child.

See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God's children—and so, in fact, we are. This is why the world does not know us: it has not known God. — 1 John 3:1

God won’t pull his love away from you.

For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below—there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God, which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord. — Romans 8:37-39

God takes pleasure in your presence.

But he takes pleasure in those who honor him, in those who trust in his constant love. — Psalm 147:11 

God gives his grace and mercy to you generously.

Our High Priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a High Priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin. Let us have confidence, then, and approach God's throne, where there is grace. There we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it.
— Hebrews 4:15-16