"Hey, give me money."
"Sorry, I don't have change."
"Don't lie to me.. You're white and I know you're rich."
His words pierced my heart and anger swelled up inside me. I kept walking and couldn't look back at him. My mind filled with questions. Where did he hear that before? Where did we go wrong into leading these people to believe that as North Americans hold the financial answer to all their issues? Why can't I just walk down the street in peace?
I thought back to another encounter I had, this time with a friend. He told me that being white was a blessing. The same feelings surfaced and emotions flooded. My skin colour is a BLESSING? It's SKIN. We're all the same inside. I fall, it gets cut- just like yours. But I smiled and let it slide, knowing that my words in that moment where not loving and definitely are not able to change generations of lies built up in this man's mind.
The undeniable truth is that I cannot blend in here. I cannot go into the city without being yelled to and groups of children wave and scream "Americana!" in any place I go. There are days I crave to fit in and to go unnoticed, but for now I have been called to this place where I am chronically a misfit. But one word stands out to me- a word that I feel God has asked me to redefine for my life.
Blessing.
Yes, being Canadian has given me tools and resources to call on that are simply not a reality for many here. Finishing school was a given, I never doubted where my food would come from, or feared being rejected medical care. But these things are a different reality (and many times a preferred reality), I am not "more blessed" because of them. Material things are not the object of heavenly blessing. I am blessed because of the saving grace of Jesus and His finished work on the cross.
I don't know why my skin is white or why I was born in Canada, but I do know that those questions will have to wait until I can ask Jesus myself. I have not been placed above anyone else in His eyes, nor will I ever be. My financial security is not a blessing, my yellow house in Canada is not a blessing, my Canadian passport is not a blessing. I am blessed because I know a God who left everything comfort to sit and cry with the hurting ones. I am blessed because I know that He is coming back again. I am blessed because He is a God who speaks to His children. And I am blessed, because He loves me.
May we grasp the meaning of this word and not use it in a way that threatens to minimize the level of faith in the developing world. May we understand the blessing we have already been given, and know that it is finished because He said so.
Take some time to read Matthew 5:3-11. Jesus makes clear those who are blessed in His eyes.
