Friday 3 July 2009

a citizen of a faraway country


Our daughter Hannah (now 6 months old) received her American passport in the post yesterday. She is now officially an American citizen and the paper work says that she 'acquired United States citizenship at birth.' What is unusual in Hannah's case is that she is now a citizen of a place that she has never been to. She has a passport and will be allowed entry as a citizen but as yet she has never even visited the States. What makes her a citizen is not where she was born or anything else that she has done, she is a citizen because her mom is a citizen. She acquired American citizenship at birth because one of her parents is American. This reminds me of salvation if we are born again even though we have never been to heaven we are still citizens of heaven. Our citizenship was acquired at the cross and we received it when we were born a new. We will be welcomed in because we are citizens and not through anything we have done but because as I Peter chapter 1 says "The Father through His great mercy has caused you to be born again". We are aliens and strangers in this world because we are citizens of a faraway home.
As I am writing this on the 4th of July may I take this time to wish all my American family and friends a happy 4th of July (although I don't understand why you would celebrate not being part of Great Britain) :)


God Bless
Stephen <><

3 comments:

andrea said...

Amen, what a great post
Hannah is just georgeous
Hope to see you soon
God Bless

PeterinScotland said...

I keep not arranging to get Clement one of those. The other two have not only got their two passports, but been there, done that, etc, though Benjamin was too young to remember.

Steve said...

Much in the same way that we are citizens of Heaven.

Our Father is, so we may be too.