Define stranger. One of the definitions is a person who is not a member of the family, group, community, or the like. In other words, a strange is an outsider. But we are all strangers in a strange world! There are no outsiders. No matter how far someone goes from his home nest, his place of birth, he is still part of the family of man and therefore cannot be a stranger, and outsider.
Can we do any less than welcome him as God welcomes us? Are not we all strangers in some sense, but always welcomed as a child of God? We are not outsiders; we belong to God and therefor to each other. When we vilify the other as a stranger, we are only inflaming conflict. And conflict always leads to war. I have had enough of war. God has had enough of war.
The human person is both body and soul; the important, eternal part is the soul, the perfect creation of God. Jesus taught us to see others as ourselves, to love others as ourselves. When we follow Jesus, there is no conflict; there is no war. They true way to right this problem to open ourselves and reflect God’s truth and love.
© Russell Kendall Carter
Meditating to Heal 