Do you ever feel like you don’t really fit in?
At work, with your friends, or neighbors, even with some of your family?
Is there an answer to that dilemma?
We are foreigners here in this world.
I know some of the Bible characters felt that way.
Moses wanted to serve God and he didn’t quite fit in with his adopted family.
If he would have followed along and not wanted to serve God,
maybe things would have been different.
King David was out of place a lot.
His own wife hated him for dancing before the Lord.
Joseph was out of place. His brothers hated him so much,
they decided to get rid of him,
but they decided against killing him and sold him into slavery.
They told their father that his favorite son had been killed
and brought Joseph’s special coat to their father with animal’s blood on it
to prove it and his father mourned his death.
Lot was out of place. He was considered righteous enough
to be delivered from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
His wife didn’t make it because her heart was not with the Lord, or Lot.
Job is a good example as well. The Lord was stripping him
and his friends came near to vex him and to correct him
and make his already miserable time more miserable.
Mordecai didn’t fit in with Haman.
Haman wanted all to honor him and praise him
but Mordecai was loyal to the Lord.
Haman was then hanged on the gallows he prepared for Mordecai.
And, our very own Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Isaiah says,
He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
He is despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Isaiah 53:3
Jesus knew what it was like to feel out of place.
He came to bring us good news and speak the truth.
But He was killed for it.
The next time you feel out of place, let the Lord comfort you.
He understands you, He knows what you’re about.
He sees your heart and your intentions.
Being misunderstood or feeling out of place
can be a reminder of
how much God loves us and is always there for us.
He made us just the way we are.
That is not o say we should consider ourselves perfect,
but to remember His mercy and grace with humility
and that we were created by Him and for Him.
We are works in progress
and will one day be perfected when we meet the Lord face to face.