When I was in Jr. High my family moved from the town in which I grew up to a new one, far away. I did not know anyone there. No one knew me. We moved again at the beginning of high school. 

While there were some things about moving that were difficult, there were also things that I really enjoyed! But to sum it up, moving to different communities and finding my place as “the new kid” during my teen years was.... Weird. (But doesn’t that describe the teen years, in general!?) 

I eventually came to enjoy both of the communities to which my family moved, but no matter how long I was in either of those places, there was always a sense in which I felt late to the party and just a little out of place. 

During my Senior year of high school, my classmates and I were asked to share memories in the yearbook from throughout our school years. Many of my classmates had been together since kindergarten. 

What memory did I share? 

“Remember that one time in 2nd grade when we were all on the playground and I… Wait... I didn’t grow up here!” 

It is weird to be the new kid. And you know what?

There is a sense in which being a Christian in this world can make a person feel like the perpetual new kid. 

By God’s grace, through faith in Jesus, we are brought into God’s family. Through Christ, we receive a new identity, a purpose with eternal significance, and an ultimate hope for the future. But in this world - fallen in sin and awaiting restoration - we can feel just a little out of place. 

The author Jeremiah writes in the Old Testament to a group of Jewish exiles living in Babylon. They were far from home, loved ones, and the places where they had experienced God’s presence with them in the past. Certainly, they wanted to return home and for their time away to be over. 

However, Jeremiah wrote to them with important words from God, about how he intended to use this time to turn their hearts back to Himself. He would one day restore them to their land and His favor. 

But even more than that, God wanted them to know that He had a purpose for them as His representatives in this unfamiliar land: 

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” - Jeremiah 29:4-7

God was telling the Israelite exiles, “Don’t approach life in Babylon like you’ve been shuttled off to life in a prison camp. Live with purpose as a missionary in this new land in which I am with you. Build houses, settle down, have gardens, eat the food you grow, get married, have kids, and to encourage your children to do the same! Invest your heart and energy in the welfare of the people around you.” 

In many ways, the Israelites were eager for their exile to be over. But God wanted them to know that this season was not without purpose. He desired to use it to turn their hearts back toward Him and for His people testify to the one true God, to the people around them. 

If you’re a follower of Jesus, maybe you never put a finger on it before, but maybe following Christ and hoping in Him in this fallen world has you feeling like a perpetual new kid - far from home and a little bit out of place. I hear you. The home we long for is a renewed creation. But let us also acknowledge, like the Israelites in Babylon, God has us here for a reason. The Israelites were called to love and serve the people around them for a reason much greater than self-preservation - to reflect His love for people made in His image and to show them His heart to redeem. 

The same mission belongs to you and I.

As strangers in this world, let us never pull back from representing the living God to the people around us. Let us embrace life right where we are and engage the people around us with the message of God’s grace and truth in Jesus Christ. 

Christ will one day return and renew all things. Until then, let us seek the welfare of the people around us, even as we feel a little out of place. Let us stand for Jesus and love others because God first loved us (1 John 4:19).