We’ve all been the stranger in a crowd or felt out of place in a group. It’s not a great feeling. You often feel like everyone is watching you and judging you. You may think when they laugh they are laughing at you. You feel lonely and often unwanted. Maybe you try to quietly leave if you can or slink to the back where no one can see you. But sometimes you can’t. You’re stuck there in that situation. So, you search and search until you either find a person you know or find someone else who seems as equally uncomfortable as you to befriend so you aren’t alone. And boom – you immediately feel less like a stranger or alien in the group. You’ve got a buddy. It makes all the difference.
As servants of Christ, we should feel like strangers and aliens and outcast here. We aren’t part of the “in” group here on earth. We act differently – think differently – prioritize differently – plan differently. We stick out and our differences aren’t always welcome so we are made to feel even more alien and unwanted. It can be hard sometimes to cope with as we live our lives. But Paul reminds us that it won’t always be that way for us.
While we may be strangers and aliens here, we are citizens with the saints before us in the kingdom of God and we are members of God’s own household. We do have family and friends and our own group. And one day we won’t be the strange aliens anymore.
So, until that time where we aren’t the oddballs and unwanted in the crowd how do we cope? Well we do what we do in all of those situations – we find a friend. We aren’t the ONLY ones in the crowd trying to please God. We just have slowly and wisely weave our way through the crowds and find the people who are equally uncomfortable and unwanted. God didn’t expect us not does He want us to slink to the back. He wants us to find others in the crowd and maybe while we’re looking for our fellow citizens and family members we meet someone who seems to be unhappy with their current situation. We can help them find their true family too.
You may be a stranger and alien here on earth but you are our place because you are citizen of God’s kingdom and a member of His family! So, don’t slink back. Back your way through the crowd confident you do have a place and a crowd you will fit in with in this life and in the next!
Adonai's Appeal 