“Red, brown, yellow, black and white, we’re all precious in His sight….”
Since Phil and I returned home last Thursday, people have asked me, “What impression impacted you the most from your trip to Israel?”
I expected to see Jewish people, some from many different continents as the diaspora have returned to the nation of Israel since it’s modern establishment in 1948. I also expected to see many Arabs who have populated this region since their beginnings as children of Abraham’s son, Ishmael.
What I did not expect to see was the many hundreds of Christian pilgrims from every tribe and every nation on earth.
The second through fifth days of our trip were spent hiking the Jesus Trail. This is a well marked trail from Nazareth, where Jesus grew up, to Capernaum along the Sea of Galilee where Jesus spent most of His time in ministry. Our group of 10 people walked where Jesus walked and lived, seeing the locations of several of His miracles and the ruins of the occupying Roman government. This is not a heavily populated area and the people we saw were mainly Jews and Arabs, living in a delicate balance of religious and political tolerance.
The next few days were spent mainly in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, visiting the many significant sights of Jesus birth, death, and resurrection. This is a modern urban area, surrounding the old cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem. There were hundreds of people arriving on large tour buses at each site we visited.
This is what surprised and blessed me.
This is what I did not expect.
The “pilgrims” like myself, were Christians from every people group I can think of. The following nationalities represent people we either spoke to or we heard them say that they were –
- Africans – from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya
- Asians – from China, Korea, Japan, India and Taiwan
- Hispanics – from Ecuador, Argentina. and Mexico
- Europeans, – from Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy
- Eastern Europeans – from Poland, Czech Republic, Russia
- Australians
- New Zealanders
- Canadians, Virgian Islands
- US Citizens from many different states
All of these people came to pay homage to Jesus and the places where Jesus lived and and carried out His ministry.
Why did this bless me so much? Why was I surprised to see people from every tribe and every nation worshipping Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?
I have to admit that my response revealed my narrow view of the Body of Christ and the Kingdom that Jesus will establish when He returns again to earth.
In Revelation John shares the following vision.
Revelation 7:9-10
9. 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. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10. And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
Seeing these large groups of people from nations throughout the world should not have surprised me. We were after all near the very location where the Bible teaches God created the first people. If I believe this Biblical account, and I do, then all the various people I was seeing had ancestors who originated here as well, just like I did.
I was overcome by the blessing of seeing this very diverse representation of my brothers and sisters in Christ, the Body of Christ, the Church. Our church gatherings here in the United States are but a small representation of what God has gathered together in the Body of Christ world wide. My visit to Jerusalem gave me a glimpse into this much bigger picture.
We looked different, dressed differently, talked and sang differently, prayed differently, even expressed our love for Jesus in different ways, but we had a common purpose.
We were there in Israel to honor Jesus, the King of Kings.
I will sing that familiar children’s song with new meaning now……
“Red, brown, yellow, black and white, we’re all precious in His sight….”
