In an abortion first it is necessary to deny a child’s existence and then to deny it life. In preparation for Easter may we spend time to mourn our loss as a nation for the many who will never try on little shoes or buy an Easter dress. But our Good Shepherd knows each one of even His smallest and forgotten lambs by name. On Good Friday He choose to die in our place and on Easter Sunday to give us an abundant life!
For the entire ten years we lived in a rural Pennsylvania community we were considered the “New People”. I felt better when I learned that there were other “New People” just up the road from us. They were from New Jersey and had lived there since the 1950’s!
In a more serious light the hysteria and anger over “New People” (Mexicans, Arabs, Muslims, Asians) has culminated in the most recent massacre in New Zealand. How we as Christians to respond must be linked to how Jesus responded to hatred and prejudice. Jesus loved the immigrant, the stranger and amazingly so even His enemies. Jesus was not angry with Samaritans who had come from another place and worshipped differently than Jews. Jesus did not protest about the brutal Roman rule or even agitate for the removal of Herod, who had murdered his cousin John the Baptist. Maybe Jesus was accepting of the “New People” because he knew what being rejected felt like. 
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. John 1:10-11 NKJV
Change can be difficult and unsettling, especially if we feel we are threatened by those new and different circumstances. But no matter what situation we find ourselves in the only true place of peace and acceptance is not in being surrounded by “Our People”. Real peace comes as a result of being adopted into God’s family by the blood of Jesus Christ.
I was thinking how last Wednesday a friends of ours; who is one of those, “New People” became a U.S. citizen. He and His family eat different food, speak a different language and has a different culture. But today Raj and I both have exactly the same rights, responsibilities and privileges. In the same way, when Jesus laid down His life on the cross to pay for our sins, we gained the privilege of citizenzenship and includsion in the community of God. Yes as His children, we may always be treated as the “New People”; but God calls us His own. How much more should we be ready to embrace whoever He has allowed to live just down the street in our town?
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Philippians 3:20 NKJV
In our backyard is a lemon tree that loves to give fruit. Every year right after Christmas you will find it loaded with hundreds of lemons. No one has ever done any pruning spraying or fertilizing. It loves where it lives. I have discovered that its secret is in its flowers. Each year in early March when the weather turns warm it is covered with the sweetest smelling blossoms this side of heaven. Every bee in the county knows where our tree lives and lends its help in making sure next year will be a bang up harvest again.
Have you stoped lately to check if the sweet aroma of a relationship with Christ is in our attitudes and words? Is there anemic looking fruit on our branches? Jesus isn’t trying to whip us into action to produce a better crop. He is appealing tp us to just learn to love where we live in Him. If we will delight in the backyard He has planted us in, He promises to fill us with fruit. But without Him there won’t be a single lemon on our tree!
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