Finding equity

Ezekiel 47.21 "You are to distribute this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. 22. You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who have settled among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 23. In whatever tribe the alien settles, there you are to give him his inheritance," declares the Sovereign Lord.

I think that somehow I have always known that love was a decision, a mental assent, a commitment of purpose, a determination. I think that discovering the difference between love and romance came somewhat later, perhaps in my early adulthood, before meeting the beautiful redhead who was to become my wife and the love of my life. I was still struggling with determining the difference between emotions of romance and love when I first expressed my feelings and intentions to the redhead…I’m sure that she will never forget my stumbling around trying to find the words adequate to express my soul and devotion.

Over the decades my primary struggle has not been so much the determination to love, to gentleness, to kindness toward those for whom I have the greatest affection, but rather the great difficulty to love, to be gentle, to be kind to those for whom I have no affection.

That is the struggle to which God has called each of us – to love, to be gentle, to be kind to those for whom we have no affection.

It is by this that we reflect the breadth of the inheritance we have as His adopted heirs. We are, indeed, “heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ” adopted, in the words of the Apostle Paul, even though we had no rights or claim to the inheritance through our own birth or efforts.

Since we are only who we are by Grace and adoption, we are required to extend it with love, with gentleness, with kindness, to those who are aliens among us…as though they were “native born.”

Since without Jesus we have no equity or parity or particular standing in our claims for mercy before God, we must extend the same gracious equity, parity, and standing to those aliens who find themselves among us in our allotment in life.

Mr. Warren Buffet has commented on the great luxury we enjoy by having “won the birth lottery.” We can take no personal claim or responsibility for that ‘luck of the draw.’ Neither can we condemn those who, by no personal fault or responsibility were born in another place in desperation.

God said prophetically through Ezekiel, some 600 years before Christ, that as we move into our inheritance we must consider those - who come without benefit, having been born in another place, to another people, as though they were “native born.” They are to share in the benefits with equality and without prejudice as though they are our brothers and sisters.

May I, as gently as I possibly can, encourage you to determine to love, to be gentle and kind to those whom we consider to be aliens among us, without regard to their ability to speak as we speak or to live as we live?