For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.  
Deuteronomy 10:17-19 

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 
1 Peter 1:8-9 

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When I was a teenager, I drove to the grocer in our small, rural Tennessee town. I grew up there, and most of the folks I would run into while in that store knew my family. But on this particular day, there was an unfamiliar, middle-aged gentleman who brushed past me as I put some produce in my buggy. A few minutes later, I heard him shouting at the cashier. It took me a second, but I realized he was shouting about me. “Why is she in here? What will you do about it?” I froze, wondering if I should leave. The owner came over, reassured me, and stood by me while the cashier quickly rang the agitated man’s items and sent him on his way. As she walked him to the door, he continued to shout and grumble. “He’s had a rough few years,” said the owner. “And he’s had too much to drink. I’m sorry.”. 

At that moment, as a young Asian-American, I realized as much as he felt like a foreigner in my local store, I was a foreigner to him. I felt fearful and embarrassed about the situation, but because of the owner’s care for us both, I also felt like my local store was still a place where I was welcome. 

All these years later, I’m so grateful to the owner of that store for showing me what compassion looks like—not just how he showed it to me, but how he showed it to the gentleman—he saw beyond the behavior he didn’t like and saw a human being in pain. Because of his actions that day, when I think about that gentleman, I also see a human being who was in pain. As I reflect on Deuteronomy 10 and how our God loves us all, it reminds me that living out this verse is loving those who may seem the hardest to love. 

The world is vast, varied, and filled with people of all backgrounds and intents. And God loves them all. Like joy is the undercurrent of our lives, a gift to us, created by our security in Jesus no matter the circumstances (1 Peter 1:8-9), love should be the undercurrent of our actions in the same way.

Next Steps

• I’ve been listening to these two songs a lot during our Prayers for the Next President series. I hope they help you as you reflect on our call in Deuteronomy to love as God does:  Heal Our Land / Come and Move and Made for More.
• God’s love is woven throughout the Bible, but a great place to start to learn more about the nature of His love and how we can reflect it is in the book of 1 John.