On Diversity

Maybe I'm weird, but the thought that people from every tribe, language, and nation will be in heaven praising God together, as described in Revelation 7:9, gets me choked up. Today in church we sang in Spanish and then were led by one of the pastors and his wife, who are from Sierra Leone, in singing "Jabulani Africa," complete with gestures. (I love it that Africans can't sit still to worship; I have trouble not moving, too.)

If I were to show you my kindergarten class picture, you'd immediately notice that I'm one of very few white faces. When my family left Chicago for the suburbs, I didn't stick out as much, but among our neighbors were Filipino, Egyptian, Korean, and German families. That was just on our block and behind our house; and these were first generation. I remember frequently asking my friends, "How do you say that in Tagalog [or Arabic, Korean, or German]?" I guess I never thought my experience was all that unique until I got to college and met people who'd never had a friend of an ethnicity that was different from their own.

Later, living in Paris gave me great opportunities to meet and befriend people from literally everywhere. And it was in Paris that I met one of my dearest friends, who is from a country where the U.S. is currently considered archenemy #1.

Still, even with all these experiences and having many friends from backgrounds that are different from mine, I personally know the ugliness of ethnocentrism. I've gone to other countries and actually judged people because their ways seemed illogical, unbiblical, or just plain stupid to me. When my cultural values clash with another's, I am quick to defend my way of doing things simply because I've never thought of doing it any other way (and might just be afraid to discover that I could have been wrong all these years).

Paradoxically, I've trained missionaries preparing to live long-term internationally. I am well aware of how destructive and ungodly it is to hold my own culture as superior to another, but I am also aware of my propensity for sin. I know that, at times, I could be a character in Crash, a movie that I found both fascinating and disturbing in its penetrating look at the prejudice of several different people groups toward each other. Yet, by God's grace I'm increasingly open to, accepting of, and loving toward people of other cultures. Truly, His glory is revealed more powerfully when His love and unity overrule our fear and closed-heartedness.

Maybe that's why Revelation 7:9 speaks so powerfully to me; not only will we all be in heaven together, but our hearts will have been purified such that we will fully appreciate the beauty, the glory, and the richness of our diversity.