Why doesn't the stranger, the foreigner adapt to our country? Why do they always want to speak their own language? Why do they want to be around people from their own country? Why won't they eat and/or cook more American food? These questions may cross your mind or your lips as you encounter internationals in the USA.
Let me put it this way. Pretend for a moment that you were "visiting" a foreign country. In this strange land no one looked like you or talked like you. They dress differently, the sounds and the smells are different and you do not understand anything that was going on around you. All of a sudden out of the corner of your eye you see another American. Wouldn't you naturally want to go over to them and speak to and be with someone who was "like you?" Wouldn't you feel much more "at home" and at ease with this one person than maybe the hundreds of other other people around you who were "different" than you? I am sure that you would be because I know I would be.
Now put yourself in that foreigner's shoes. And they are not just visiting but they have "moved" here permanently. But they are in a place surrounded by hundreds of others who are so different than themselves. Then they see someone from their home country. They do not like you any less or accept you any less they have just found someone they feel comfortable with in an uncomfortable situation. It actually helps them feel more "at home" in a strange place.
As difficult as it is for us to be in a foreign country, it is just as difficult for a stranger to be in our country. Just as they give us grace, we need to give them grace. We need to accept them and love them as they are, where they are. They want to adapt, they want to learn; but it does not come overnight. We need to love them for the sake of winning them to Christ. If we don't accept them as they are how will they ever see Christ through us? Soon it won't be us and them it will be US!
No comments:
Post a Comment