Are We Honoring God?
And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you
yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. – Deuteronomy 10:19
They came again today. Loud honks penetrated the sky,
announcing their arrival. They were majestic in flight.
My geese didn’t think so. Their angry squawks met the
Canadian geese as they landed. They hadn’t issued any supper invitations and
they were not planning to share.
It didn’t matter that there is plenty of corn for
everyone. I make sure of it. No matter how much I try to reassure the geese,
they simply don’t want to share. At least not with the Canadian geese.
We have lots of wild ducks who hang out around the
pond. I don’t allow hunting so they know they’re safe. The geese rarely have an issue with the ducks.
Maybe it’s because they are smaller and, thus, less threatening. Whatever the
reason, the geese tolerate the wild ducks even as they hate the Canadian geese.
We aren’t much different, you and I. There are some
people we welcome into our midst. They are the ones who look like us and act
like us. They are people we can relate to, people we are comfortable with.
And then there are those who aren’t like us at all.
Maybe they are a different color. Maybe they work outside with their hands
rather than in an air-conditioned office. Maybe it’s their politics, their
religion, their attitude. Whatever it is, we just don’t like them.
People who are different than us make us
uncomfortable. In a ridiculous way, they threaten us. Not because they’ve done
anything specific. It’s just that we don’t want to face our differences.
It wasn’t like that when our country was founded. Out great
nation was once known as a melting pot. Not anymore. We forget that it is God
who calls us to love foreigners. We somehow think the fruit of kindness only
belongs to those like us.
It’s amazing how we can twist God’s words to fit our
own desires. We are just so righteous in our minds. It’s easy to believe that
fallacy when we’re surrounded by like-minded people. It’s easy to hate when it
seems as though everyone else hates too.
I read the Facebook posts of some of these people.
They loudly proclaim their faith in Jesus Christ, even as they spew hatred at
those made in God’s image. The saddest thing? They don’t see the hypocrisy in
it all.
I wish I could convince my geese that their home is
safe. I wish they could understand that they will all have plenty to eat,
plenty to share with these visitors. But they are so busy feeling threatened
and territorial that they will never know what might have been a great
friendship.
The same is true of us. Everything we have, whether it
be possessions or this great land of ours, belongs to God. Are we honoring Him
with our choices, our comments, our laws?
