Happy Canada Day, one and all! Who doesn’t love a celebration? Canadians really know how to celebrate their country, and everyone seems to get into the “It’s summer and we have a day off to eat poutine and party and wave our flags and watch our fireworks!” frame of mind. How awesome is that? I love living in Canada, but I’ve only truly appreciated it this past year or two—since we became REAL Canadians, eh?
So we’re Brits who decided to move across the globe and settle in British Columbia, Canada, way back in 1995. We bought a house, raised a family, and started a business here, but still there was a little somethin–somethin’ missing. We were “aliens” even after putting our roots down and living in this country for almost 2 decades. Other than our slightly weird accents, you would never suspect we were any different from your average Canadian, but something was definitely lacking…
We hadn’t made that final commitment to Canada to make it ours. Horrible procrastinators! Seriously, who wants to be known as an alien? Action was required—and finally after living here for almost 20 years (I know, it’s shameful), we put a hand in the air (plus took a nasty little test) to declare we are committed to this country and we are all in. I can’t tell you how amazing it felt to FINALLY receive our citizenship. We are now ligit. Maple syrup runs through our veins.
“…but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:20)
It’s like that in our spiritual lives, isn’t it? Here we reside in this world we call home, buying our houses, raising our families, starting our businesses, yet we really are aliens (not in the green-skinned, three-eyed sense). It’s temporary. And some days it feels REALLY temporary. Which makes sense when we take a step back and realize how our lives are just a teeny-tiny fraction of the entire picture:
This is just the beginning! The citizenship that really matters is the eternal one—our citizenship in heaven. That also requires an action, a “hand in the air” to accept Jesus as Lord, only this time there is no nasty little test to see if we get in—we are accepted as future citizens of heaven purely by God’s grace. That’s something to celebrate right there.
Do you spend much time thinking about heaven? I don’t, if I’m going to be honest.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the here and now, in this temporary home. Anyone out there remember these words from a song of olde that we sang back in the day?
(It really helps if you imagine a bearded dude singing along with a banjo.) We are just a-passing through, and that means we should keep our eyes on the eternal home-sweet-home while making the most of every day—enjoying our country wherever that might be (yay Canada!), pursuing our passions for His glory, looking ahead, and counting our blessings.
Canada is a big blessing in my book— HAPPY CANADA DAY! Eh?
And for my wonderful friends south of the border—Happy Fourth of July for next week. I KNOW you’ll celebrate 🙂
Linking up with some fabulous encouragers. Check them out:
