November 20, 2015.
From another mother
As we’ve been studying the book of Ruth together, at our
ladies’ small group, I’ve been moved by the faithfulness of a faithful
God. Having lost her husband and her two
sons, Naomi left three graves in Moab and returned to Bethlehem with her
daughter-in-law, Ruth. Naomi says that
she had left full but came back empty.
Not so, Naomi! God has always
been with you, faithful to the end; Ruth, whom you now call ‘daughter,’ has
been ever-so-faithful to you.
One might ask: “What does it mean that God is faithful?” He is faithful in His written word:
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away”.(Matthew 25:34),
and in His Living Word, found in Jesus Christ,
God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:9)
Your refuge, my refuge, is found in this faithful God who calls
believers in Christ to be faithful. Really,
all of us are refugees, looking for a safe haven. Whether it is a teenager who is pregnant and
needing care, comfort and courage to carry her baby to term or a senior who
longs for a smile, a helping hand and conversation, there is an innate longing
for faithful friends. And no wonder,
since we are made in the image of God.
This triune God is a God of fellowship between the Father, the Son and
the Holy Spirit. This triune God, in
whose image we are made, has created us for fellowship, for intimacy, for joy
and as a refuge for others.
Are we so selfish, that we will not allow others from
another mother, to come into our country?
Will we really close the airports and the gates and the ports and the
borders, so that fleeing refugees will be turned away? Don’t we realize that Canada has its own version
of evil: abortion-on-demand and the legalization of euthanasia? Haven’t we killed enough of our own blood to
staunch the flow of death? Are we so
self-righteous that we claim an excellent human rights tradition while our
indigenous communities have no running water and cardboard houses in which to
live?
Where is the faithfulness that the fruit of Spirit speaks
about, in Galatians 5:22? Are we so deaf
to the cries of the needy that we can say, with alacrity and insouciance:
NIMBY- Not In My Backyard? Oh please,
please- let us be a people who love the Lord our God and who love our
neighbours, whomsoever they may be.
Women, children, one-month-old babies are escaping the
horrors of a war that has been none of their making. The politics of generations has gone into
these awful developments, and an organization like ISIS has deftly made their
way into a vacuum where mercy does not reign, but terror tightens its grip on
hearts and minds. If we are in Christ,
why do we feel paralyzed with fear? Can
we not provide a drop of mercy in these oceans of heartache and despair?
The violent takeover of lands and peoples is not new to
Islam. Such was the way of the prophet
Mohammed; such is the way of those who follow him to the letter. They are bent on creating a caliphate where
women are objects to be used, where fear prevails and nary a drop of mercy can be
found. Are all Muslims to be painted
with the brush of such extremists? No. Would some of them make it to Canada? I wouldn’t doubt it. But to think this is comparable to the myth
of the Trojan horse that was sent into the heart of Troy and filled with the
enemies’ soldiers is pretty far-fetched, Donald Trump notwithstanding.
Faithfulness to our God, faithfulness to our spouse, to our
children, to our world- this fruit of the Spirit can only be played out in the day-to-day
decisions that we make; in the places where perhaps no one sees us; in the interactions
we have with our neighbours. Being
faithful is only a platitude unless we have a godly attitude- pointing people
to our faithful God. I am grateful for
Samaritan’s Purse, who has boots on the ground at the point where these
fleeing refugees are at their weakest- getting off rubber dinghies and landing
on the shores of an island where they cannot be sure if someone will turn their
boat around,sending them back across the lonely, salty waters; back to
certain death.
(See here: https://www.facebook.com/SamaritansPurse/videos/10153016512126809/). May it not be so here in
Canada; may it not be said of believers that WE are more important than THEM. ISIS longs for this; they want these fleeing
refugees to think that ISIS is their refuge and as they watch and wait, we
might well be playing right into their bloody hands. Let it not be so, oh faithful God, let it not
be so.
