Your Country Will Fall

Your country will fall. It's completely inevitable.

I don't know when. It could be tomorrow. It could be a thousand years.

I don't exactly know how – whether by war or poor leadership or natural disaster, or whether it merges with another or splits into several.

Even if Jesus doesn't return for another ten thousand years, and your country lasts until then, it won't last beyond it. Your country will fall. If not before, it will fall when Jesus comes.

There are no Canadians in heaven. There are no British people in heaven. There are no Burmese, Algerians, Americans, Saudis, or Peruvians in heaven. All these boundaries and citizenships are of human design. Yes, they are boundaries that are ultimately appointed by God. But they were not part of the first, perfect creation, and neither do we read about them in the renewed heaven and earth. All these countries that we know will be burned away. Only the kingdom of God, only the people of God, will remain.

There are some ways in which I am incredibly patriotic. I love seeing us take gold in the Olympics. I love sharing a national identity with some of the heroes that have hailed from my country. I will always remember the day that I sat at my computer, weeping through the updates, as our Parliament was attacked and a young soldier lost his life to terror. I truly love my country. But one day it will be no more, and that's OK. I hope that it will not happen until Christ's return. That would mean I would simply be trading a good thing for a thing infinitely greater. But even if it should happen before that, even if something terrible happened, it would be well with my soul.

So love your country. Work for its good. But remember that one day your country will fall. Nothing lasts forever.

Except Jesus, and his kingdom, and those whose citizenship is most truly in heaven.