Most of Us Are Just “Others”

Most of us enjoy seeing our name printed in the newspaper (unless it’s in the obituaries or in a list of recent arrests). In my reading this week, I noticed that some people are listed simply as “others”. I don’t know if they felt slighted or not, but that’s what most of us are. We are important to God, but to the vast majority, we are simply “others”.

“When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.” (Luke 24:9–10). In other words, there were more than the apostles in the upper room (Acts 1:15 tells us there were 120) and there were more women that bore witness to the resurrection than just the three that are named. 

People label you by your job, your political party, your financial status, or your age bracket. We all want someone to know us by name. Perhaps that’s why the tv program Cheers, was popular. Their tag line was “Where everyone knows your name.”

The first step in the Nazi concentration camps was to reduce people to numbers. Completely opposite of that, God calls you by name. Even the trillions of stars in the sky are named by Him. “He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.” (Psalm 147:4) 

Before I became involved with Apple of His Eye Charity, the masses of humanity in India were just that, masses. But once I got my pocketbook involved and also traveled there, the orphans, widows, lepers, and our partners and their wives became individuals with names to me.

Each of our orphans is so much more than just a name. They have thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams, worries and disappointments. And God knows all those details and more.

• “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” (Luke 12:7)

• “You [God] know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O Lord.” (Psalm 139:2–4) 

• “For You [God] created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:13–14) 

It’s not so bad to be just an “other” in man’s sight, as long as we have received Christ and are a child of God. That puts us at the center of His heart, the apple of His eye. That is the reason we have chosen the partners we have. They not only feed, clothe and educate the orphans, but they share the message of Jesus with them. 

If you haven’t repented of your sin and received Jesus yet, I hope you’ll do that soon and become another of His adopted children whom He calls by name. 

Marlon Furtado