In my life I have known some aliens. At one point half of the people in my group of friends were aliens. They were friendly and kind of different at times, but over all we got along great.
I am not talking about small green men from Mars, I am talking about people who were born outside of the U.S. and then came here. They had adopted the language and customs, but all of them seemed to hold onto this aspect of themselves that made them different as well. Strangely enough, two of the best friends in my life have been aliens.
I was ten years old and a family had just moved into our Church from Japan. They had a daughter my age and I decided to be friendly and bounded over to her to talk about this and that. She was quite and I thought really shy, so I tried harder to be friendly. I took her to all the classes that day and introduced her to everyone. Later I found out that this girl did not know any english and thought I must have been some crazy girl, but in a good sort of way.
Even though I was there, I wonder sometimes what it must have been like for her and my other immigrant friends. How they might have felt being surrounded by an language they did not know and customs that were not second nature. To have moments of triumph only to be thrown back into obscurity with the principle feeling in their hearts being that they do not belong.
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Though being alienated from those around you can be emotionally and mentally exhausting, being alienated from the life that God wants for you can be excruciating. It is painful to look in the mirror and see someone who you have no love for, but it can be heartbreaking to see someone that cannot feel God's loves. Not that God does not love you, but by turning away from him you are in a sense shielding yourself from that love.
Only a softening of heart and a conscious willingness to turn back to him can end the alienation. Some people say that Christ found them, but I say that what matters is what you do with Christ after he found you. In Colossians 1:21-22 it says what can happen if you choose to let Christ into your life:
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
I am not saying that you will never have feelings of being alone, of feeling separated from God or that maybe you just do not fit into this whole religion thing, but instead of feeling like an outsider looking in you will instead feel like someone who does live in the "life of God" who is just having problems. Problems that will come and go, but not ones that will cast you out unless you choose to let them.
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