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Most of us wouldn't trade. We were born to parents who loved and nurtured us, gave us plenty of decent food, drove us to practices and rooted for us to excel. Along the way, you picked up some great memories of how your mom made Christmas special, or how those warm cookies tasted when you got off the school bus. Your mom might not have been perfect, but you won the mom lottery and you wouldn't trade her for the world.
Others, however, would trade in a heartbeat. A friend of mine despises the whole idea of Mother's Day. Her mom abandoned her when she was just a small child, leaving her with an unprepared father and an overwhelmed grandfather. Her memories aren't good and Mother's Day isn't something she celebrates. She would change mothers if she could.
As Peter wrote his first letter to the church, he penned, "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia..." "Elect" means God's chosen, believers who share a common faith in Christ. But note that Peter also call them "exiles." That's because believers never really feel at home in this world. They have been "born again," and became part of a new family, God's family. Their values and goals differ widely from the world's, which is why Peter goes on to remind them, "Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul" (1 Peter 2:11, NIV).
In the First Century world, believers were considered quite strange. They did, after all, believe that a dead man came back to life! Sometimes Christians were accused of "godlessness," because they didn't worship the idols that folks were used to, and they refused to engage in Emperor worship, which was expected of citizens within the Roman Empire. History records that believers were sometimes called "cannibals," since they ate the body and drank the blood of Christ. (Those outside the church didn't understand the symbolism of the Lord's Supper.)
Early in the Second Century, someone wrote a letter to a man named Diognetus to explain that Jesus' followers just didn't fit in: "Christians are not different from the rest of men in nationality, speech, or customs; they do not live in states of their own, nor do they use a special language, nor adopt a peculiar way of life... Whether fortune has given them a home in a Greek or foreign city, they follow local custom in the matter of dress, food, and way of life; yet the character of the culture they reveal is marvelous and, it must be admitted, unusual. They live, each in his native land but as though they were not really at home there. They share in all duties like citizens and suffer all hardships like strangers. Every foreign land is for them a fatherland and every fatherland a foreign land. They marry like the rest of men and beget children, but they do not abandon the babies that are born. They share a common board, but not a common bed. In the flesh as they are, they do not live according to the flesh. They dwell on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the laws that men make, but their lives are better than the laws. They love all men, but are persecuted by all..."
Christians still don't fit well in the Twenty-first Century. After all, believers love someone they've never seen, and sing songs and talk to Him daily. Believers' views on issues like marriage and sexuality differ from those of the majority. Christians willingly make financial sacrifices and hard choices in this life because of their belief in a life to come. This world is not their home; they are "exiles." They live in the world, but they are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Because they choose to be! While those with sorry parents can't go back and choose another mother, every person on earth can and must choose their spiritual allegiance.
In John 3:3, Jesus said, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." If you want to live at home in Heaven, you must choose to be an "exile" on this earth. You must follow Jesus home. Choose now!