Scripture: Jeremiah 31:7-14 (NIV)

This is what the Lord says:

“Sing with joy for Jacob;
shout for the foremost of the nations.
Make your praises heard, and say,
‘Lord, save your people,
the remnant of Israel.’
See, I will bring them from the land of the north
and gather them from the ends of the earth.
Among them will be the blind and the lame,
expectant mothers and women in labor;
a great throng will return.
They will come with weeping;
they will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead them beside streams of water
on a level path where they will not stumble,
because I am Israel’s father,
and Ephraim is my firstborn son.

“Hear the word of the Lord, you nations;
proclaim it in distant coastlands:
‘He who scattered Israel will gather them
and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’
For the Lord will deliver Jacob
and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they.
They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion;
they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord—
the grain, the new wine and the olive oil,
the young of the flocks and herds.
They will be like a well-watered garden,
and they will sorrow no more.
Then young women will dance and be glad,
young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
I will satisfy the priests with abundance,
and my people will be filled with my bounty,”
declares the Lord.

No matter what government held sway in the Star Wars galaxy, they would run into the same problem. The galaxy was BIG. So big that it was almost impossible to keep everyone on the same page when it came to governance. The farther you got from the seat of government (which was usually Coruscant, though the New Republic did move the capital around regularly), the less the laws and regulations that were passed had much meaning. Things happened in the Core that took days or weeks or longer to get out to the other planets that might not be as tied into things.

Nowhere was this more notable than in the Outer Rim. Even while the Old Republic was at its height, things out on the fringe of the galaxy passed with less interference from the powers that be. As we saw in The Phantom Menace, even though slavery had been abolished, it was still practiced on worlds like Tatooine that were so far off the beaten path no one could enforce things. Even Imperial credits, the standard money on so many worlds, wouldn’t be honored. The Empire tried to be more forceful but they still left those planets mainly to the mercy of crime lords. All the New Republic could really do was run patrols and try to keep the peace out there, with middling success.

It took a lot for things to get out to the rim. Things like the destruction of the second Death Star didn’t take too long but it was a pretty huge deal. Anything less, though, wouldn’t register on most people’s scopes.

There are a lot of barren areas in this world. While there are large cities around the world and we are interconnected by the internet, allowing news and information to zip around the globe instantly, there are still a lot of people that either can’t or don’t hear things for quite some time. There was a story, perhaps apocryphal, that people in the United States were still googling “did Joe Biden drop out” mere days before the recent election. Sometimes even when we have the access to information, we don’t use it.

However, there are also places in this world that are off the grid, as they say. Places deep in the jungle, far out in the desert, or just way out of the way of most normal tracks. There are still tribes in remote parts that have never been visited. We like to think that everyone in the world has at least heard about Jesus but there are some people that haven’t heard about anything, much less the good news.

There will come a day where distance doesn’t matter. There will come a time when those hidden away will see the light. When Christ returns to the earth, everyone will know the truth. No one will wonder what is happening or be confused about what they are seeing. Everyone will see the glory and majesty of the risen Savior.

Until that day, though, we have to keep up with spreading the Good News everywhere we can. There’s always going to be some that need to hear the story of Christ and what He means to humanity. We have to find our own personal Outer Rim and spread the news far and wide!