One Word
This winter on The Daily Pattern we’re in a series called One Word. Each day we take one word – a feeling or circumstance – and bring a word from God to it. Let the Word of God speak to your life.
Invocation
Make the sign of the cross, and say,
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Invitation Prayer
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matt. 5:5) O Lord, I am lowly and humble. You alone are my inheritance. Amen.
Word: Psalm 146:9
“The LORD watches over the foreigner, he upholds the widow and the fatherless…”
Meditation
Immigrant by Jeff Cloeter
Two years ago, God gave me a gift. He placed a young man in my life named Charles. Charles grew up in a refugee camp in Uganda. When he was 16, his family was given an opportunity to come to the United States. He learned English, kicked for his high school football team, and graduated. Today, he’s completing his associate’s degree at a community college and preparing to transfer to a four-year university.
In Uganda, Charles and his family had a few cows. It was nothing like the big agriculture of America. No tractors, no barns, no fences. They would let the cows roam the countryside around the camp. Charles’ job was to follow the cattle wherever they found pasture. As a 10-year-old boy, he would sleep for days in the countryside next to the cows.
Charles is an intern at my church. I meet with him weekly to talk about God, life, and ministry. Last year we were reading through Luke’s gospel and came to this: “And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8). After we read it, Charles said, “Oh, I did that.” Although he watched cows instead of sheep, Charles knows exactly what it’s like to be a shepherd. He did that! So I said, “OK, teach me.”
In my friendship with Charles, I have seen that he is often overlooked and undervalued. Immigrants are often perceived as a lower class in our society. At best, we kindly put them on the sideline and assume they will work the jobs we don’t prefer. At worst, we see them as a threat to “American values.”
This isn’t new. In the Bible, immigrants (the “foreigner,” the “alien,” the “sojourner”) are always at the bottom. But God has a heart for the overlooked and undervalued. In Deuteronomy, God demands that his people make provision for them. “When you reap your harvest and leave a sheaf in the field…it shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow” (24:19).
Charles started a ministry to African youth. It has been a gift to me. Here I see the Lord working hope and joy among kids who are pushed to the margins of society. This is just God’s way. The Bible is full of immigrants and wanderers without a home. Abraham is a template of the pilgrim sojourner. In a way, we all are immigrants, for we are never really home here. We desire “a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (Heb. 11:16).
Lord, give me eyes to see the overlooked and undervalued around me. How can I welcome them, show them compassion, and bless them? Even more, how will you bless me through a “sojourner”? Teach me the faith of a pilgrim wanderer. Make me long for a “a better country.” In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Prayer for Family
· For my immediate family (parents, spouse, siblings).
· For extended family (cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents)
· For close friends that are as family to me.
· For those who don’t have families, or whose families are broken.
· For forgiveness and reconciliation where there is division in my family.
· For provision where there is need in my family.
· For God to be the foundation, and the cross the center of my family.
· For a generation yet unborn, future members of our family.
Closing Prayer
O Lord and King, your Kingdom comes even without our prayer. But we pray that it would also come among us. We are desperate for your reign and rule, for all we see is rebellion. Come into my heart, my home, my family, my work, my church, my community. Rule with justice and with mercy. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.