Aliens - another take

      I grew up as part of a generation that knew about aliens.  There was Roswell and "the X-Factor" and "Mars Attacks" and "ET" and Kecksburg locally.   We were curious and fascinated, but also frightened because aliens were "different" and "didn't belong".  Sometimes they were pictured as cute and adorable like ET, other times they were scary like the creatures in "Independence Day".

     There was another age when the native population became the aliens, even though those making that designation were the foreigners.  In this great land, the vast majority of us came from or were aliens at some point.

     Now those "aliens" are concerned and upset about this new set of "foreigners" who are taking over, these aliens (legal or not) who are different and threaten our "way of life". 

     In Exodus today (Exodus 22:20 - 26) we are given another take on aliens.  The Lord reminds us that we are all aliens, as were the people of Israel in Egypt.  They had been welcomed in Joseph's time, given the very best of land, treated as equals, until they multiplied and grew strong and the native population resented and feared them.  Then the persecution and injustice came.

     The Lord says: "You shall not molest or oppress an alien ... You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.  If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry.  My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword."

     We are all children of God.  We belong to the human family, which supersedes nations and borders.  There needs to be order, but there needs first of all to be respect and justice.  We, a nation of immigrants, have an immigration problem.  It needs to be handled by law ... but in fairness, in justice, in respect and with an understanding that we were once there ourselves ... and there, but for the grace of God, we stand again.  This "take" is not necessarily politically correct or socially acceptable but is rooted in the revealed Word of God.  And the reminder that the Lord gives that he hears the cry of the poor and will respond needs to be kept fresh in our hearts and minds.

     A good word to ponder.