Native Citizenship

From the moment we arrived in Hawaii we were surrounded by a large Asian population.  I try not to get my dander up hearing the constant “babble” of another language.  I found my heart in a myriad of emotions.  From resentment to frustration back to the song, Jesus loves the little children……all the children of the world…..red yellow black and white….

I have lived in cultures with a majority of blacks and I have lived in a majority Mexican community.  Both of which I have come to love.  But for some reason, I felt a moment of “This is not your country….what are you doing here?” attitude.

I struggled with it all week.  Asians are everywhere from who was serving me, cleaning my room, to the tourist next to me.  It was so confusing it seemed there were few actual Hawaiians.  So this remain on my heart…..

Then we went to the Pearl Harbor Memorial.  Where I understood a bit more of that sobering piece of history and the surrounding consequences.

There were many Japanese people who were harshly treated, shunned and not trusted.  Because of their heritage they were assumed to be the enemy…..I can not imagine what that must have been like to try to convince “white man” that you were on his side when you have dark skin, slanted eyes and a foreign accent…all of which they were fighting against.  Those same skinned people had just destroyed our ships, planes and killed hundreds of lives.

But the Lord showed me….if is not nationality that makes you belong…it is citizenship.  Was their name written in the American Citizens Book?  Their certificate of identity is what made them belong not their nationality. 

Likewise, it is not our heritage….sinner...thief…adulterer…murderer….lier….selfish….

But Whose we become… a child of The King….gets a new citizenship…a Heavenly certificate.  Anyone can become a citizen of Heaven….

It made me accept these people much different than I upon the papers that states they are American just like me….not their nationality.  They have accepted a new life.

If you have a new life as a child of the King….do you stand out?  Do people see you are different by your love?

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

John 13:35