Do you remember your first day of school? Looking around and hoping that someone, anyone would recognize you or smile or give you a friendly nod. Anything that would give you the slightest hint that you would be accepted into the new, strange, and exciting place you have found yourself.
Do you remember the first time you were the new person at work? You may have blundered your way through your first real task or heard someone give you directions for a task that sounded like Greek. For most of the day, you probably kept looking around and looking for that one warm smile, the encouraging nod to let you know you were catching on and some sign that you would one day be familiar with your surroundings.
How about going to college and meeting your first roommate. For 17+ years you have been living with your family and they know all of your quirks and loves and hates. Suddenly you find yourself in a room with a stranger that you are instantly supposed to somehow connect with and live with for at least the next semester. They don’t listen to the same music or wear the same clothes, perhaps they even speak a different language. You look around your crowded small space and wonder “How on earth is this going to work?”
Sometimes we feel like strangers in the world we are living in and yet for the most part, we are all looking for similar things; love, acceptance and a place to call our own. Perhaps the old show Cheers said it best “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came. You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same You wanna be where everybody knows Your name.” The best part of this struggle is that God understood our need for acceptance. Our need to not be strangers in the world but an integral part of the world we are living in. He saw our need so well that He sent Jesus to become an ultimate sacrifice for us so that we could be accepted into His kingdom and never have to worry about being alone or if we would “fit in” for the rest of eternity.
Not only did Jesus come and die for us, but also he lived among us and he experienced our life with us. We are not strangers to Jesus because he saw our hurts, our disappointments, our joy, our disgrace, our pride, and our humility. He saw the greatest people our world had to offer and the worst that our world had to offer and he loved them all equally. He sat with Pharisees that were only concerned with the rules and regulations. He ate among the tax collectors that were robbing the people they collected from on a regular basis. He chose simple fishermen and other commoners to walk with him everyday and experience life with him.
That all sounds great for that time, but what about the here and now. What does this mean for me? When Jesus died, he left with us the Holy Spirit to fill us in his absence. When we become believers we are granted this gift. We are never alone when we are believers, God is always waiting to hear from us and have us consult him on our day – no matter how big or small a problem or joy is that we are experiencing. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:19-22 - So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
We have been given citizenship in the kingdom of God and it is up to us to help other believers to not feel like strangers in his kingdom. The next time you are in church and you see that person with the glazed over stare, or the look of confusion and bewilderment in their face – take the time to go and invest in their lives. They are citizens of the kingdom of God with us and Jesus is building up His church to do His work through them. We know how it feels to be strangers and to walk into a new place with new vocabulary and customs to learn. We have been there and we should be eager to help the next person transition from stranger to friend, especially within the church. As cliché as it might sound – what would Jesus do is an excellent question. Well, I’m not sure what his opening line would be, but I am sure that he would greet that person with open arms and say something like “friend, let me show you where the donuts are and you can sit by me during the service, I always have an extra seat beside me. After the service, we can go grab a bite to eat and I have an amazing story about love and grace that you just have to hear!”