"I was recently leafing through a book of cartoons about being Canadian and one page caught my eye. It said something along the lines of “You know you’re Canadian when you celebrate Thanksgiving in October and don’t watch football right afterwards.” There were other cartoons that were funnier but this one made me think about our national identity, and furthermore, about our identity as Christians.
The Bible says that Christians have been “delivered [by God]…from the domain of darkness and transferred…to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col 1:13-14) The Bible also says that we have been “raised with Christ”, that we are to “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” and that we are to “[s]et…our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For…[we] have died, and…[our] life is hidden with Christ in God.”
My point is this: At thanksgiving it’s easy to slip into a mindset of thankfulness to God for our countries and our nationality, but if we stop there, we’ve missed the most important part. Jesus has redeemed our souls from death and given us new life! If we learn anything from history it’s that earthly kingdoms rise and fall. We should be thankful to God for our countries, but still remember that our identity in Christ is eternal. God has given us that. Whether Canada or the United States exist 300 years from now is irrelevant. What will exist is our souls. Will we be able to praise God for helping us live lives that were sold-out for Jesus regardless of how godly or sinful our countries were OR will we look back on lives that were preoccupied with idolizing patriotism and culture? Jesus Kingdom will last forever. Are you thankful that He made you part of it?"