“I am a stranger, an alien residing among you…”
Every child of God has felt some type of rejection from the world. This is a natural reaction if we consider the fact that to them, we are strangers. One may even say that the world thinks Christians are extraterrestrial beings.
Is this true?
Well, the Bible says that we have been born again from “above” (John 3:3). Although we live in this world, we are citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20), and we now belong to God’s family.
Now wonder the unbelieving society calls us aliens! They don’t know what to do with such a “stubborn” and “intolerant” group of “religious fanatics.” The world does not understand our faith and rejects our values and traditions.
This, in a nutshell, was Abraham’s situation. He was a pilgrim on this earth who didn’t own so much as a small lot to bury his beloved Sarah, even though he was rich.
Why, then, do we trouble ourselves listening to those who reject our God? We are pilgrims’ and sojourners who are just “passing through.” Some of us will never be able to enjoy a home of our own, but we have a heavenly home, and we have God. Isn’t that enough?
Let the world call us what they will; it will not matter. We are a different race for sure. We are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood a holy nation, God’s own people” (I Pet. 2:9).
A. G.