Much of my life I have felt like an outsider looking in. I never really fit in at school or even at work. I was kind of the nerd, a little straight-laced, not the best looking, usually the last one picked for sports. It can be kind of lonely sometimes, being the one on the outside, always looking in.
I don’t say these things to make you feel sorry for me, because one thing I’ve learned, as I’ve grown older, is I am not alone in feeling this way. Most of us feel this way at some point in our lives, if not most of the time. We all feel like a round peg in a square hole. We fit, but not well.
There’s one place we do fit perfectly, however – in the family of God. No matter what our background, our sins or mistakes, our nationality, our economic status, we are all the same – sinners in need of a Savior. God saw our helplessness, saw we would never fit in in His kingdom the way we were, and sent His Son to die for us, so we could belong. “Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13 NLT).
Because of what Jesus did for us we need never feel like an outsider again. “Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit, because of what Christ has done for us.” (v. 18). Through Jesus we “are no longer strangers and foreigners. [We] are citizens along with all of God’s holy people…members of God’s family.” (v. 19).
Do you, like me, feel like an outsider, like you don’t fit in? Then come join the family, the family of Christ. There’s always room for one more at His table. There are no strangers or foreigners here. This is one place you’ll always belong. Welcome home!