Aliens in This World
We took our family to Europe a while back. One of the things that impacted us was the fact that we were foreigners in a foreign country. Everything seemed different. The food, the smells, the customs, the bathrooms, the things we take for granted were different. Although we could easily find people who spoke English, we were often surrounded by a symphony of words we did not understand. We felt like what we were. Non-citizens. Aliens.
I would imagine it was even more so that way for Joseph when he was sold into slavery in Egypt. Or Daniel and Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego when they were taken as captives into Babylon. The early Christian Jews who had to flee Jerusalem for their lives probably felt like aliens in their new Gentile cities and towns. And Jonah being sent to Nineveh. He was excited about that wasn’t he?
God tells us that we actually are aliens in this world.
To God’s elect, strangers (exiles) scattered through the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia ( you insert your own address), who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:
Grace and peace be yours in abundance. 1 Peter 1:1-2
It’s fun to kick this truth (about being foreigners in this world) around with kids. Children are so honest about what they see that it is a great comfort for them to know when they go to school and no one is allowed to sing Christian Christmas songs that God told them it would be this way. It means a lot to kids to know the truth. To know that they don’t have to conform to what the world tells them they have to be. They are aliens.
During Advent, we can look at john the Baptist living in the dessert, eating locusts and honey and wearing animal skins. God wanted people to know that his prophet was not the mainstream type. John the Baptist was different, because the one he proclaimed is different. Jesus is different. Not different like weird dress. Or eating locusts. But different in the fact that he is Love. Personified. He is the Way to be rescued from hell. He is the One God promised since that first sin in the Garden of Eden. He is Love that requires nothing in return. Love unearned. Love that we cannot even choose to want. He is Love that invades our dead hearts with his truth of salvation.
We are aliens in this world because we know this love- we know God. Our children know Love personified. It is good for them to know that so many of them around them do not know that love yet. It is powerful for our children to be in a place where they can see life through the eyes of Jesus, through eyes of peace and love and life. Not fear and hopelessness. It is good for them to know they are aliens.
A Daily Prayer
Dear God, the next time I am tempted to encourage my children to be like the world so they can be accepted, remind me of this beautiful truth. Help me to give my children courage in your love to be who they are in you, to be free in your love for them and not feel like they have to meet the requirements of the people around them to be safe or important. For they are safe and significant in you alone!
Amen.