Moments of pageantry and ceremony have a way of making a deep imprint. One such memory from my college years is filed away like a snapshot. While triumphant music played, all of our international students proudly carried the flags of their home countries, marched to the front of the auditorium, and lined up across the stage. The myriad of colors from flags and fellow students calls to me yet today, showing the incredible beauty in God’s creation of all the nations.
And yet…even though I could warmly laud the beauty at that moment of ceremony when music was swelling and soft emotions were blooming deep in my spirit, over the subsequent years my pride in being a lover of the nations got shot down numerous times. Various circumstances led me to learn about the hidden prejudices in my own spirit.
You see, I clearly remember how appalled I was as a young adult when a family member made an obviously racial comment. I prided myself in recognizing his ignorance and sin of denouncing someone of another race. But I still had to learn to not assume anything about others’ upbringing regardless of age, income bracket, or skin color. Not long after that conversation, God placed me in a church in the suburbs. I remember being frustrated with God because I felt so noble in wanting to serve in the inner city where the “real” need was. God certainly loved the poor more than the rich, right? Wrong, of course. That was one of the times when God convicted me of my own prejudicial attitudes.
The reality is that we need to spend our whole lives learning to have a heart for all those whom our Savior loves if we are going to be true citizens of Heaven.
In Paul’s discourse in the Areopagus on Mars Hill, recorded in Acts 17, we see his masterful and loving approach to a people who did not think or look like him. He wisely and lovingly demonstrated that they needed to know the One who loved them enough to die for them. God had created them for relationships with Him, regardless of their culture or race or background.
I have been meditating on this one line from Paul’s message over and over in the last few months, and it is a fitting closing thought as we wrap up our season of articles on being citizens of Heaven. Paul says in Acts 17:26: “He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth.”
Is there not a more inclusive or beautiful statement of unity than that?
We all came from one man. God made out of one person of one skin color, speaking one language, all of the glorious diversity that we now see around us in humankind.
What binds us together with Adam as our common ancestor is greater than any difference that could divide us. The same red blood runs through every shade or color of human container. It is the same color of blood that our Savior shed for every shade of every wonderfully, masterfully, and uniquely created human being on this planet.
If this is true — and we know it is — then we need to make it true in our own hearts. We need to let the One Spirit of Christ transform our thinking so that our prejudices melt away and we learn to love all the ones He’s created because one day we will join all those from every nation, tribe, people and language to worship our blessed Lord and Savior at His throne (Revelation 7:9).
God, forgive us for loving our own nation and language too much, for not looking to love others enough. Give us hearts for the “all” You made from “one.” Amen.
Taking It Further:
Towards what kinds of people or groups do you find yourself struggling with feelings of prejudice?
Choose one of the following ways to combat ethnocentrism (exalting your own ethnic group above others) or pick your own:
- Read a book written by someone from a different culture
- Read a missionary biography
- Make a friend who is of a different culture, age, or socioeconomic status
- Connect meaningfully and build a personal relationship with a missionary your church supports.