Out of This World!

The second Tuesday of February is Extraterrestrial Culture Day: the day New Mexico celebrates visits from folks not of this world. Aliens, if you will. It just so happens, a favorite scripture of mine is a reminder that we, too, are strangers to this planet. That while we walk for a time on earth, it is not our home. It was in Hebrews 11, the "by Faith" chapter, in which Paul outlines the lives of Able, Abraham, Enoch, and Noah: men whose lives reflected their faith.

¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. ¹⁴ People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (italics mine)

"Foreigners and strangers on earth." We understand we don't belong here. As long as we reject the ways of this world -- as we are instructed in Romans 12:2 -- we have declared that we are, indeed in the world, but not of it. 

As Christians, we know we are citizens, not of the Kingdom of the Earth, but of the Kingdom of God. A higher, greater kingdom. Here, we'll have trouble. Money trouble, trouble with work, or with other people. People may not like us. Yet, because we are visitors here, we are Christ's ambassadors, sent to show His love to a lost world. And someday, our work here will be done, and we'll go again to our true home, seated at the feet of our Lord.