One World, One Heaven

So how many of you were glued to the TV catching RTM1 live coverage of the opening ceremony of Olympics 2008 on 8/8/08?? I was one of the estimated 4 billion folks who tuned in, tho regrettably all i saw was lots of blurry colours since my old TV reception was 'off'. But i opened my eyes beeeg beeeg at the mind boggling display of China's finest performance... must say i felt a little twinge of pride at how perfectly they brought it off... i am Chinese after all mah!

Bt i wonder how many of us bothered to continue watching after the opening... all those 200 over contingents marching into the stadium... after awhile it just blurred from one team to another... i was going to switch off after 15 mins... but something happened to my heart as i listened to the commentator droning on and on announcing country after country after country, and as i watched row upon row of athletes, officials walking in...

They were just so many names, but as my eyes observed so many smiling faces... peoples of all races - white, black, yellow and in between... peoples of all religions and govt systems - i heard Iran, Iraq, Canada, Laos, Taiwan .... peoples from countries i never even knew existed.... and half my mind was on the latest news that somewhere in the Eastern bloc, Russia was fighting a war with some country, and i remembered America invading Iraq not that long ago... and here in this Birds Nest stadium, for once, for all, the world stood as one. For once, in this place there was no politics, no war, no color that divided... what no human could achieve, the Olympics did - drawing together a normally divided world to forget at least for a brief moment in time our differences. Is that great or what? And i felt hey, isn't this how it's always meant to be?

But sadly as i finally switched off the TV to head for bed, i knew it couldn't last, even within the grounds itself over the next weeks, people are striving agst each other to be the best of the best. We will be cheering our nation's athletes on to go for gold, silver or bronze. Everyone will be out to beat each other( hopefully by fair means) to show off who is the most powerful in this world!
So for another brief moment in time, the national anthems of the champions will blast. And then it will be all over... till the next Olympics wherever. Then somewhere along the line, we forget about the glory of the unity of humankind, and we go back to live behind our walls of race, religion, politics, gender, social and economic disparities. That's the real world we live in now.

Still my heart beats with a hope that it will not be this way, becoz God will not let things be this way. In His Word, He has promised there will be a new heaven and a new earth, where every knee shall bow and every tongue confess the true living God, where peoples from every tribe and every nation shall gather and bow at His throne of grace... from which flows love and mercy forever more...where "the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.. and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying and there be no more pain... for behold He makes all things new.. He says " ..I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts..."

So many things we thirst for in this world... yet just like the Olympics can only unite us for a little while, the things that we think can satisfy us - medals, accolades, power, money, success, health- are but transient false security blankets we draw around ourselves. But when we thirst for the Truth, and are ready to believe, receive and appropriate it, we are set free to live as we are meant to live, in one world, one heaven.