My A to Z Challenge Theme this year is the ABC's of me. Each day in the month of April with the exception of Sundays I will be posting about one aspect of my life that begins with the letter of the day. Today's letter is X so let's get right to it shall we?
H was for Husband of One Amazing Wife
X is for Xenophile
Xenophile is the antonym of xenophobe. A xenophile is an individual who is attracted to foreign peoples manners or cultures. I am a xenophile. The reason I am a xenophile is pretty straight forward. God is a xenophile. As an evangelical Christian I try to emulate God. Generally this is by imitating Christ, however being a xenophile which is certainly a trait of Jesus is also a trait of God the Father.
Well you might ask how I know God is a xenophile. I think there are many ways that I know that but I think John 3:16 provides conclusive evidence of my assertion:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)
This is the 2nd post I've written this year about John 3:16, In the first I focused on the love aspect and today's focus is on the world part of the verse. The Greek word that world is translated from is Kosmos. When it comes to John 3:16 there are many interpretations of what John meant when he used that word. Two of these interpretations is that world means all of humanity, the other is that world means all of creation. I personally feel that it means the former, however since the latter is all encompassing either definition includes all of humanity.
I have been reading a book about the attributes of God called Knowledge of the Holy. It was written by A.W. Tozer. Tozer makes it very clear that we are very different than God. God has always existed. Since God has always existed he was never born and he will never die. God is all knowing. Since God is all knowing, he has never learned anything. There is attribute after attribute of God that shows how different we are from God. When God says in Isaiah 55:8+9 that my thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways he reiterates that in our fallen state that we are different as different can be from the character of God.
Yet John 3:16 says that God loves the world. In fact it says that God loves the world so much that he gave his Son. That makes God a xenophile as he is attracted to foreign people. their manners and their cultures. God's love for us transforms us and gives us our identity. When 1 Peter 2:10 speaks of this transformation it says once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. God being a xenophile is the first step in our sanctification.
Emulating God in the matter of being a xenophile is why I went to Russia for two years in the early 1990's. It is why I studied to be an English teacher. It is why I always try to speak to people in their own language even if it's just a greeting. It is why I'm not very interested in the MAGA movement because Isaiah 40:15 says that to God all nations are a drop in the bucket. I've spent more than enough letters differentiating myself from my country's current president, so I won't go any further on the last point.
One of the difficulties I have had with my A to Z posts this year is bringing them to an end. I classified my theme this year as autobiography and autobiography never ends. At least it doesn't end while I am alive to chronicle it. In the same way these alphabetical glimpses of me are just autobiography in progress. There is certainly more I can say about being am xenophile and there is more I can live that will further define my view. If my view on this or any other subject seem incomplete it is because I am a work in progress.
To get to the A to Z Challenge webpage click here.
To see the A to Z Master List click here.
Coming up: Things Get Weird
