I live about two miles from El Paso, Texas, which is separated from Juarez, Mexico, by a river in some places and a chain link fence in others. Juarez is the largest border city in Mexico and has been recently named the most dangerous city in the world. The drug war that rages across the river is responsible for multiple grizzly murders daily, and the influx of illegal aliens from Mexico into El Paso and the surrounding areas continues to grow as they look for a means of escaping the violence in their own country.
Recently our pastor asked a young woman who attends our Wednesday evening church service to tell the congregation about going to court over her legal status. I, of course, thought that she was going to say that she was about to be deported and that she needed prayer. I could not have been more wrong! Her intriguing story made me realize that many of us are living just as she was—hiding fearfully in the shadows while our inheritance is slipping away.
Ana is the daughter of an American man and a Mexican woman. She has lived most of her life here in El Paso, but her father was seldom in the home. Because her mother is a Mexican National, she and Ana had lived “under the radar” to avoid deportation. Now that Ana is in her mid-twenties and has two little boys of her own, however, she felt that she needed to do whatever was necessary to protect herself and her children from deportation. She mustered her courage and decided to go to court to find out how she could obtain legal status for herself and her children.
When Ana’s court date finally arrived and she stood before the judge, she was amazed to discover that she is a citizen! The judge informed her that she has been a citizen since birth. She was, of course, overjoyed, but I could not help but think about the years of torment that Ana had experienced because she did not know about her priceless birthright of American citizenship.
Hearing Ana’s story also led me to think about my own birthright and that of every person who has accepted Jesus Christ as his/her savior. We have so much in Christ, but we often live in fear, and anger, and frustration because we do not understand that He has taken our burdens. We refuse to forgive because we have never really understood the significance of His having forgiven us. We feel inadequate because we do not really understand that when we accepted Christ, it was no longer about us; He is the all-sufficient one, and He is more than able to supply our needs “according to His riches in Glory.” We feel unloved because we have never opened our hearts to accept the unlimited love that only He can offer. If we really understood and were willing to accept what is ours, we would live our lives very differently.
As we face the difficult times ahead, I hope that we will all remember our birthright as Christians, and that we will step out of the shadows to accept all that is ours in Jesus Christ.
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