Praying for RefugeesSýnishorn

Strangers and Exiles - The Body of Christ

The story of salvation is one that binds us all together. It’s the story of the displaced and their hope for the future.

It begins with Adam and Eve, who because of their sin were cast out of Eden. Having lost paradise, they step out into a strange and hostile world. Through this tragic rupture, they set in motion a series of displacements that would resound through history and impact the course of the human race.

For example, Abraham and his descendants, who were defined by the journey they embarked on and their faith in a God who had promised them a country, a home. They encountered hardships and suffering, but they endured by their faith and persevered by their hope. They were sojourners and refugees, and the love God showed for them set the stage for stories such as Ruth’s, who sought refuge under God’s wings, and joined the family tree of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the list goes on, with stories like Noah, Joseph, King David, and a multitude of prophets, all of whom put their faith in God at one point or another to seek refuge. Throughout the scripture, God is revealed as the God of the humble, the miserable, the afflicted, the oppressed, the desperate; the Lord who walks faithfully with those who have been displaced and the Saviour who is calling His people to a heavenly home.

But in the Bible, the People of God are not set apart by the fact that they are refugees, but by the fact that they acknowledge that they are refugees. Because, from the beginning, humanity has been a race of refugees who were displaced from the Garden of Eden. We were created for paradise, but we’re walking through the wilderness. It’s the story of salvation, the story of the displaced, and it’s a story that continues today.

That’s where you and I come in. The People of God are those who have sought refuge in Christ. We walk as “strangers and exiles on the earth”. Refugees who, having lost paradise, are fleeing from the consequences of sin and “desiring a better country, a heavenly one”. Many of us, like Ruth, have been grafted into the family of God through our faith in Christ. We walk, following God’s call, through a life that so often resembles a desert, full of trials, for the hope of a home.

But, if we are all refugees, there are some among us who experience that reality more concretely, in their day to day lives. They see the worst effects of the fall all around them, they yearn for a home even when we take it for granted, and they physically walk the same path as the heroes in the Bible, in ways we could only imagine.

Today, millions of people, like Adam and Eve, are displaced from their homes due to the brokenness of the world. They, like Abraham and other children of God, are in search of a home. They are often confronted with huge obstacles, taken advantage of, and left heartbroken and suffering. Along with Ruth, they look for mercy, but often they find prejudice and fear by those who view them as strangers, and who cannot relate to their struggles.

But shouldn’t the displaced remind us that we, too, are refugees?

Shouldn’t our status as strangers and exiles, and the hope we have in Christ, change the way we view them?