His Joy Will Make Us One

Photo credit: Andrew Butler via Unsplash

We Are a Joyful, Global Family

One of the things about living in a foreign country that I never grow tired of and yet simultaneously loathe with my entire being is language learning. There’s always a new idiom, expression, or word I’ve never heard, and I love acquiring the new knowledge. It’s like scratching an itch in my brain. And at the same time, I truly hate looking like an idiot when I can’t clearly communicate my needs or express my feelings. And while German and English have a lot of cognates and similarities, they are not the same. And that’s good. That’s how God made it to be. He’s made our languages and cultures so very differently on purpose. And yet, His desire is for us to overcome these differences and find what unites us.

Earlier this year, I was sitting around a table in a language class with women from Morocco, Iran, Afghanistan, Jordan, Germany, Taiwan, and America. We were all trying to learn German, but we were definitely using all our languages at the same time to try to communicate. It was a total mess. But just the fact that we had been gathered from these vastly different corners of the globe to sit at one table excited me. As I looked around the table, the Holy Spirit was shining in every one of those women’s faces back at me. The energy was palpable. The camaraderie was instant. We were not united by anything other than the fact that we were all created by God.

To me, this felt so significant for two reasons. One, it occurred to me that this is what I was created for! To be joined in the global family of our beautiful God who created us. Two, God had most certainly brought all these women here for a special purpose. They’d survived persecution, war, refugee camp life, and they were still kicking. Surely God brought them here through terrible circumstances to more clearly hear about the God who created them and wants to adopt them.

As I sat at that table, just listening to the chatter around me, I was so excited. This is what heaven will be like, I thought. All these people from all over the world together because God has chosen them and they’ve accepted Him. And this one idea produced so much joy in me, I could hardly sit still in that class. I wanted to stand up on my chair and shout over all the noise about what God was doing, right in that very moment. He is here! He is with us right now and wants us all to be one!

I felt the joy of the Lord over his global family so clearly, so vibrantly, that day. It gives me hope on the days where I struggle through language learning and doubt over what I can possibly achieve here in Hamburg. It helps me say, “Yet not I, but Christ in me will be achieving whatever He wants, Callie. You don’t have to worry about what you will be achieving.”

It reminds me that God has a plan, a beautiful vision for his family: “Look! I am creating a new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore. Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation! And look! I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness. Her people will be a source of joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and delight in my people. And the sound of weeping and crying will be heard in it no more” (Isaiah 65:18-19).

And maybe the best part is that God says that his people will be His source of joy! This same joy on our faces is on God’s face too! He rejoices over us, delights over us, and is so very happy with us. And that’s all I need to keep going, to keep persevering through language, and to keep awakening those around me to God’s joyful, global family.

I want to hear from you. What picture has God given you that keeps you persevering for his joyful global family?

About the author:
Calle Ferguson left her home in Oklahoma to serve as a field worker with refugees in Hamburg, Germany, with her husband, Jacob, and two children, Rory and Ian.

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