“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34)

God wanted Israel, his chosen people, to never forget they were once foreigners, “strangers in the land of Egypt.” They had suffered greatly as slaves. But God rescued them and brought them into a good land, “flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8).

Because the Israelites knew what it was like to have “a heart of a sojourner” (Exodus 23:9), God instructed them to care for the sojourners among them. The Israelites were not to wrong them (Exodus 22:21), not to oppress them (Exodus 23:9), and even to love them (Deuteronomy 10:19). The purpose was that all would come to know God.

The apostle Paul recalled for Christians that they were once “separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). But through Jesus Christ, they are now joined to the family of God, “no longer strangers and aliens” (Ephesians 2:19).

It is therefore heartening, in this REACH, to read of Christian young people reaching out to two groups easily sidelined in our society. These youths reflect God’s heart for the marginalised among us. Who knows how the Lord will work in these young lives so that the latter will no longer be strangers to Him.