By Paul Sniffen
By Paul Sniffen
As we celebrate a piece of our country's history by recognizing Black History month in February, we can thank God for his gospel and the freedom it brings.
God is reconciling the whole creation to himself, and human beings to each other through Christ.
With the fall in the Garden of Eden, God's perfect handiwork became subject to the curse of sin. This curse resulted in the disruption of the positive relationship of human to human and the harmonious state of the environment. It caused alienation from God and each other, and ultimately, death.
God paid the price for reconciliation through Jesus, who cried out, "It is finished."
Through God's power and love in Christ, the partition of separation was opened and direct access to God was restored (2 Cor. 5:18-19). We can believe it, claim it and live out the process through our daily lives.
Just as the realization of personal salvation can come as we intentionally turn to God for grace, so reconciliation can come to us as we intentionally turn to each other. Passive recognition of a theological truth is not enough. God calls us to real relationships.
Transforming experiences are often painful. It is akin to childbirth, because we are becoming new creations in Christ.
As new creatures in Christ, we can take the lead in living out the truth of the gospel and be part of the process of the reconciliation of all things.
We can rejoice in God's grace in moving the WCG leadership to initiate an organizational effort to exemplify our oneness in Christ in race relations (2 Cor. 5:20).
While neither African slavery in America nor the Jewish Holocaust in Germany were unique expressions of oppression, their magnitude and historical time-frame stand as pivotal points in the horrors of racism.
However painful these realities maybe be--and some ask, why bring up the past--there is wisdom in using the past as a reminder so as not to repeat it.
The apostle Paul was an example of remembering where he came from as a way of reminding himself, and conveying to others the magnitude of the grace of God (1Cor. 15:9-10).
I am an American who happens to be of Seminole, African, Irish and Mexican descent.
I grew up in an ethnically diverse community in West Texas near the border of Mexico. As a child, I remember my grandmother running her hand through my hair as we listened to the adults tell stories about our ancestry and its rich cultural mix.
She was a Seminole Indian and her husband, my grandfather, was African, the son of a runaway slave. My mother, Johnnie Mae, was their youngest daughter, and she married Oscar Sniffen, my father. He was the son of an Irish father and a mother of Mexican and African descent.
He told the story of a slave named Cynthia, his maternal grandmother, and the first generation American from our African family line.
I celebrate my individual identity, and that of my fellow human beings in the reality of God's truth and love. There is only one race, the human race, diverse but equal as we are made in his image regardless of ethnic or cultural mix.
Many Americans have a diverse ethnic lineage. Unfortunately, people of color tend to be categorized narrowly and identified, primarily, by skin tone and hair texture. Often they do not think of themselves beyond these stereotypical characteristics. As a result, limited knowledge of family history is passed on generationally.
This minimizes individual identity, and ancestral appreciation, which may affect self-image. Our unique composite of traits, characteristics, strengths, weaknesses and needs are what makes us the one-of-kind child of God that we are.
Fortunately, God knew all about us even before we were born, and we can become like Christ no matter who we are. God placed us in the body as it pleased him.
My wife, Leigh, and I have been WCG members for more than 30 years, but our Christian beliefs and the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ go back to our youth.
Yet, we are still learning what it means to let the Holy Spirit lead us into an intimate relationship with Jesus and the Father.
Since God cannot be encompassed by any single entity, he has given us beautiful, purposeful, complementary and reciprocal diversity in all of creation. In order for us to grasp this, we must see things from the perspective Jesus gives us, as well as from that of our fellow humans.
It is unnatural for humans to be other-focused, so we need to allow ourselves to be transformed by the continual renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2). After all, that is why he came among us, and that's what he is doing.
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 1999