While it's fun to be a tourist, it's comforting to be citizen of a country. Citizens are protected by their government. Citizens are guaranteed rights which protect them and make them feel at home. They are aliens in that they don't belong and therefore feel strange. They are residents in that they live nowhere else.
Resident aliens feel like exiles.
Everywhere the New Testament insists that Christians are resident aliens or exiles in the world. Peter begins his first letter by reminding his readers that all Christians are exiles, resident aliens in this world. I resonate immediately with what he says. In many respects I feel more like a resident alien every day. For years I have spoken on behalf of the Jewish people in churches and schools and conferences.