Rejection attacks your identity. It tempts us to interpret a closed door as a judgment on our value. We begin to believe that if we were more talented, more successful, more lovable, then the door would have remained open.

But not being wanted often reveals something very different. It is not necessarily a statement about your worth; it may simply be a revelation about belonging. Two people can both be good and yet not be called to walk the same path. An opportunity can be beautiful and still not be your vocation.

A seed is not rejected because it cannot grow in stone. They simply do not belong together. The tragedy would be if the seed spent its entire life trying to prove itself to the stone instead of seeking the soil where it was created to flourish.

How much of our suffering comes from doing exactly that? We exhaust ourselves trying to earn a place where life cannot grow. We demand fruit from seasons that are not yet ready.

The Franciscan tradition goes even deeper. It teaches that your value exists before anyone has the chance to accept or reject you. Before you were admired, chosen, desired, or welcomed, you were already willed by God. St. Francis saw all creation through this lens of gift. A flower does not earn its right to bloom, nor does a star earn its place in the sky. It exists because God delights in it. The same is true of every human soul.

St Francis understood that belonging is not something we achieve; it is something we receive.
A seed discovers its worth not by convincing the stone, but by finding the soil where life becomes possible.