I'm writing to you from my home, in my own corner of the United States, in the midst of a viral pandemic that has swept the globe. In years to come, this paragraph will bring clarification to readers of this blog. At this present moment, this isn't news to anyone. Instead, it is our shared reality.
Like most of you, I have been glued to my TV, listening to the newscasters report and predict numbers that are beyond our comprehension. But there is something else that has caught my attention, and I'd like to focus there today. That "something" is the prayer: "God bless America." Each time I hear these words I have an increasing sense of uneasiness, and I want to cry out in response saying, "No! Don't stop there! That payer is far too small for our Almighty God!"
Of course I want God to bless the United States of America, but my Christian brothers and sisters, if there is anything this global crisis should be doing to us by now, it is expanding our worldview to include just that....the world!
Our God is omnipotent (all-powerful!), omniscient (all-knowing!), omnipresent (no place exists that he is not!). He is concerned with every tribe, every nation, every race, every creed, every gender, everyone - equally! He is concerned with every elderly soul, every disabled soul, every soul on their homeland, every soul on foreign land, and every soul still being incubated in a womb - equally! So it seems that the words, "God bless America" are a well intended request for a blessing that is far too narrow a scope for the God of All Creation.
I urge you to allow this global pandemic to blow the boarders off your prayer-map. In the words of Tiny Tim, "God bless us, everyone!"
After this I looked, and behold,a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Revelation 7:9-10