A Sense of Belonging

“But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by my name; thou art Mine.” Isaiah 43:1

Everyone, at least I think just about everyone, has a desire to belong to someone or some cause to make them feel needed and useful.  The poet John Donne wrote a poem entitled “No Man Is An Island”.  From the title, we can easily see the premise upon which his poem was written:  people can’t survive or thrive as a man or a woman who attempts to live life completely alone without the benefit of family and friends.  Yes, it’s possible to stay alive alone, but it’s not really living.  God created people for a relationship with Him and with others.

I remember a popular song that was in the “top 40” during the 1960’s entitled “The In Crowd”.  Of course, the “in crowd” in the song referred to the elites who were the most popular, wealthy, or most intelligent.  They were the football players, cheerleaders, and those who were chosen the kings and queens of the homecoming dance and/or ended up in the Who’s Who of the high school yearbook.   They were the ones who everyone tried to emulate, well not everyone.  In high school, my friends and I considered them snobs.  We had our own little “in crowd”, well actually it was more like an “out crowd”.  But we didn’t care.  We had a good time, too, even though we didn’t have the fancy cars, brand-name clothes and shoes, and didn’t live on the more affluent side of town.  I dare say there were many more of us than there were of them anyway.  Today we have a serious gang problem in nearly every city in the U.S.  I think that young folks who join gangs are seeking a sense of belonging, and they don’t care who they join up with as long as they are accepted.

In any church, corporation, school, or organization, there are going to be “cliques”, that is, people who form little private groups.  They usually come together due to similar likes, dislikes, and socio-economic status.  All of these examples show that people want to be associated with one another, they want to belong.  In the above verse from Isaiah, God was assuring His chosen nation of Israel that they would always belong to Him.  He would always protect them and be with them through troubles and trials.  They need not fear because they belonged to the most high, sovereign God of the universe.  This is also a reminder to all of us who belong to Christ.  He is our elder Brother who protects us from Satan’s bullies.  There is plenty of stuff in this sin-cursed world for us to fear, but we possess a greater power than Satan because we belong to the One who is all powerful, the King of kings and Lord of lords.  The Bible commentator Matthew Henry calls those who have trusted in Christ as His “sacred society”.  No one who desires to know and follow Jesus is excluded from His “in crowd”.