I discovered the writings of G. K. Chesterton rather late in my reading life, but they were well worth the wait.

Chesterton was a British intellect who played the literary genres like a hand of cards, penning biographies, poetry, social essays, short stories and shrewd Christian apologetics with seeming ease.

On a trip to Oxford, England, years ago I met a man who’d known him – an octogenarian bookseller from London whose chance acquaintance afforded me not only a delightful conversation, but two of my most prized books. One is a first edition of Orthodoxy and the other a collection of Elizabeth Barrett Browning poetry from Chesterton’s own library, bearing his personal bookplate and his quirky, artistic signature. (They both reside very near my front door – should my smoke alarm ever squawk loudly some night and require a hasty exit!)

Chesterton himself was something of a misfit: a Roman Catholic in a country that was primarily Anglican, a bachelor until rather late in life, and a large man who was easily identified, if not by his profile, then by the cape, monocle and cane that frequently comprised his dressing ensemble.

Maybe that very oddness lies at the source of this Chesterton quote, one of my favorites:

We have come to the wrong star…that is what makes life so splendid and so strange. The true happiness is that we don’t fit in. We have come from somewhere else.

Do you ever feel like a bit of a misfit? At uncomfortable odds with the world, or maybe just slightly out of sync with its prevailing rhythms? I do. But maybe I shouldn’t mind that so much.

The apostle Paul felt it, and he too knew that he’d come from somewhere else:

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heir also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…for the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that creation itself will also be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Romans 8: 16-17; 19-21, NASB)

We have come to the wrong star! We’re not misplaced – but we’re not at home, either. We’re destined for another home, and our true identity – mostly hidden now – will one day be made plain.

The trick is to see our present misfit status as the very thing that makes this life that is passing away “so splendid and so strange.” To embrace our Christ-born oddness as a glorious mark of sonship, in this our temporary exile. And to see the fact that we don’t fit in as our one true happiness.

Are you out of place? Good! Blessings from one grateful alien to another.

© Leigh McLeroy 2004