Article October 31, 1994 Issue

Strangers "in a strange land"

Helene S. Maris

From time immemorial, tribes, families, and individuals have moved around—looking for better living conditions or fleeing from enemies. Some of the patriarchs in the Bible were told by God to take their belongings and go to another place. Abram, for instance, departed from his country and his kindred, trusting God, not knowing where he was going. Also, when the bondwoman Hagar and her son were sent away from their home, through God's help she found water in the desert after she had given up all hope of saving her child from death. In the Exodus from Egypt, Moses and his people were guided by God through the wilderness to a new land, and God led them by a pillar of fire and of cloud. Food, called manna, came primarily as one day's provision given to them each morning.

Some of the individuals in the Bible found themselves strangers "in a strange land" (Ex. 2:22). Some came with few or no material possessions, no family, no friends. As strangers, they were not always welcome. Yet in the Old Testament, angels might well take the form of strangers who rewarded those who invited them in. Christ Jesus considered the act of taking in a stranger as one of the good deeds that enable one to inherit the kingdom of heaven (see Matt. 25:34–40).

In the past century, wars, famines, political upheavals, have created a population of "strangers" of staggering proportions all over the world. Pouring into already overcrowded countries, some seek work and a better life; others flee from persecution or starvation, forced to leave the places where they have lived for generations. I myself have found how timely the Bible accounts of God's care for the stranger can be for these seekers.

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