I want to draw your attention to the 19th verse of today’s lesson from Ephesians. We read, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household . . .”

“No longer foreigners and strangers.” Reflect on those words for just a moment.

I have heard it said that a child is born untrusting. Perhaps that is why life begins with a cry. The infant is apart from its mother for the first time. It has become a separate human being. But also at that moment, to a certain extent, the newborn becomes a stranger.

Some of us have strangers living in our own house. We do not always understand one another. We love and treasure our children, and watch them grow, but we can never completely understand them. And our parents--seen fro…