Destiny's Children (II)

A resort town has 4 concentric circles of community.

The outer circle is composed of tourists and seasonal visitors who come and go in a constant flux according to the seasons.

The next circle in comprises the transient staff who man the restaurant kitchens and serve tables, the hotel front desk and housekeeping. Most are young, kids on school break or exploring the world, and they come and go almost as much as the tourists. Few stay beyond a single season.

Those who do, if they stick around for say 5 years, enter the next circle in - that of long term residents ("long term" being a relative concept in a resort town). They tend to occupy more senior positions in the tourist industry and make up a fairly cosy self-regarding community in which everyone knows who each other is.

And then there's the aristocracy. These are the true locals, born and raised there, or the lifers who have settled and raised families there. Many are business owners, though it's not necessary to be one to qualify.

Abram and Sara came to Canaan as transient shepherds. The land was already theirs by God's promise, though the local aristocracy didn't know it. To them the couple were drifters and riffraff, not anyone they would invest a lot of time in getting to know. Not unlike resort staff. But God said to Abram, "I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger".

Diane and I drifted into Calgary 30 years ago. We had been married a year and were almost penniless, our only asset being a 1964 Rambler. We were just passing through and we stayed largely because we were too broke to travel on. One job led to another, Diane got pregnant and before we knew it we had raised a family there.

We have made a place for ourselves here in the intervening years. We have been blessed financially, though not without a lot of struggle. I suppose that by now some would call us established and perhaps even repectable. Yet when I see the movers coming through, the young people starting out or the not-so-young starting over, my mind goes back to our early days and I remember the words of God to Moses:

Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers...

Like Abram and Sara, we were strangers and God gave us a destiny. We were unknown, but we were already famous in God's eyes because like Abram, we had heard God's call in our lives and answered it by receiving Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.

I'm not saying we were special. Every nameless wanderer has a name and a destiny from God, if he or she is willing to receive it. Then he too will be famous - where it counts!

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Rev. 1:5,6