Reaching to Others

You must regard the foreigner who lives with you as the native-born among you. You are to love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 19:34 (HCSB)

The young girl, with her family, moved from church to church with some regularity. It was always with pain that she moved into a new Sunday School. Feeling like an outsider was embarrassing. She didn’t know the ropes, and it made her feel rejected before anybody even had the chance to reject her.
     It’s not just pre-adolescent self-consciousness that makes us feel that way. Every day in our churches, at our jobs, at the PTA, in our neighborhood, there are people feeling like outsiders. Further, the brokenness of our society causes even those of us who seem “connected” to feel alienated from one another.
     Our Lord commands us to be His representatives to integrate those who feel ostracized into the protecting greenhouse of His love and care. It’s our arms that reach out for Him. It’s our words that draw them in.
Are you reaching? To whom?

Hayford, Jack; and Middlebrook, Sam, Living the Spirit Filled Life, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1998, c1992.