Dear Mr President: One Day Those Nations Will Gather Around Heaven’s Throne


Eight years ago today a massive earthquake struck the nation of Haiti. I have since visited the country on three different occasions. I have personally met incredible Haitian men and women who have taken in dozens of orphans created by the earthquake. The strength required, the sacrifices made, the love demonstrated to then raise and educate these children is truly remarkable. 

Yesterday afternoon I stopped by the home of my nephew, his wife, and their three sons. Yomaira’s family came from El Salvador. While there this afternoon her sister Raquel stopped by. I love these women. They are intelligent and strong, Their family is hard working and would go out of their way to help you. Like all the Central Americans I know they are a people who will roll up their sleeves and work hard to make it. They’re not looking for hand outs...only opportunity.

Some of the most amazing people I’ve ever known came from the continent of Africa. I’ve had the good fortune of visiting Africa several times, and my life here in the states has benefitted immeasurably from my relationship with African immigrants. They are among the kindest and most generous people I have ever known. They’re commitment to education and their work ethic are beyond compare. When I was pastoring we had many African families in our church. On one occasion a church leader approached me about taking them from our church to begin a new church in our community for Africans. My response was that if the Africans were leaving I was going with them.

Yesterday I bumped into a former neighbor. We laughed as we caught up with each other. He asked about my family, and I his. He told me more than once when we were moving how much he would miss us. His accent is thick, and his wife dresses very different than mine. He is from Yemen. He was a great neighbor.

These are the countries and the continent referred to by our President yesterday. They are people I know, work with, worship with, and love. They are my brothers and sister in Christ, they are my family, and at the very least my fellow human beings. His words make me sick. Today I will probably read how some of my fellow clergy members will attempt to defend him, and talk about how the media is against him. And that will make me sicker. You can’t defend speech like this. You can’t argue for context. These were evil words.

“The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." I Samuel 16:7

“I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” Acts 10:34-35

When John had his revelation he saw something remarkable. “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” Revelation 7:9

Our Father in Heaven made the people of every nation. In eternity we will still be able to recognize which nations people came from as people from every nation gather around the throne. I can assure you that none of those nations will be referred to as “——holes.”

This Monday is Martin Luther King Jr Day. Today we remember his dream from over 50 years ago.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Martin Luther King Jr.

Sadly...tragically...it’s still a dream.
Let’s be sure to keep it alive.

Following the Son,

James A Williams

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Get The Rebound

Image
If you've ever played or watched basketball you know that rebounding is a huge part of the game. If you're unfamiliar with the sport rebounding is quite simply getting the ball when a shot is missed. You can't score without the ball which makes the play of great importance. It's not unusual for a team with a higher shooting percentage to lose a basketball game because they were out rebounded. On the court what you do when you miss can be even more important than making shots. It's true in life as well. Everyone misses shots, but that doesn't mean you've lost the game. Get the rebound. "For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again." Proverbs 24:16. People won't always give you the chance to rise again. For some your shortcoming is how they'll label you forever. Get the rebound anyway.  It was the historian Froude who wrote, "The worth of a man must be measured by his life, not by his failure under a singular a...
Read more

What’s In Your Cart?

Image
On this day in 1939, Sylvan Goldman who owned the Humpty Dumpty supermarket chain got an idea. He was trying to think of a way for his customers to transport more groceries around his stores. He attached 4 wheels to the legs of a wooden folding chair, and then attached a basket to the seat. The shopping cart was born.  Before this shopping trips to the Humpty Dumpty or the Piggly Wiggly would be limited to what you could carry in your arms. I wonder if Sylvan’s original patent stated that one of the wheels was to either not spin or rapidly shake back and forth? It’s possible that this is some modern improvement on his original design. However it happened the carts keep getting bigger. When I bring my groceries to the check out counter I sometimes use the self check out. I don’t like the self checkout because the computer keeps telling me I put things in the bagging area when I didn’t. When I get a real person they will often ask this profound question. “Did you find ev...
Read more

Mercy

Image
We visited our nephew and his family last weekend. They have three boys, and witnessing their interactions brought back memories of both fun and difficult days of raising our boys. Sometimes when my boys were young I felt like all I did was discipline them. It seemed at times like we couldn't make it through a meal, homework, or even play time, without a fight breaking out, some inappropriate comment, backtalk, or a hundred other random things they could find to do to push their Mother and I over the line. I remember calmly saying things like, "I need for you to understand that I can feel anger welling up within me."  Sometimes this would result in corrected behavior, other times they would look at me as though I were speaking Chinese (I know this isn't actually a language, please don't write me a letter). I realize spanking children is controversial, so I tried not to spank my sons over 3 or 4 times a day (That's called hyperbole). On one occ...
Read more