A fellow pastor, who likes to speak off the cuff, shared a story with me about a recent baptism. He told me I could share it anonymously.  This is what he wrote:

“We had a baptism today, and at one point I was attempting to address the whole extended family in an encouraging way. It’s always a fun internal dialogue, when you’ve just told a family that they are all the spice that rubs off on the kiddos, like salt and pepper, and then you immediately notice that the extended family is made up of black and white people. Then you try to recover by naming other spices, but the only two spices that come to mind are paprika and jalapeño, and as soon as you say jalapeño, you realize there’s an adopted Hispanic person in the family as well. If you could’ve been in my racing mind, you would’ve laughed for days.”

Then he added, “Not my finest moment.”  I would have to disagree. I know this fellow to be a man of God who meant no harm or disrespect to anyone, but was simply trying to encourage the entire family. I told him I thought it was the Spirit’s guidance, and then I added: “We have all of that in our family.”  While Cheryl and I have a German heritage, we have people in our family who have very different heritages: African American, Hispanic, Samoan, along with a couple of Norwegians and Swedes. And we love them all. We know that Jesus died for them all, and when we look at photos of our family gatherings I think we are getting a glimpse of heaven. The picture with today’s devotion includes some of our grandchildren playing with some of their second cousins.

Revelation 7:9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

Prejudice based on outward differences has been around since Bible times. Jesus was trying to teach His disciples – and all of us – that there is a better way. He got His point across to Peter when he was dealing with Cornelius. Peter responded by saying:

Acts 10:34–35 “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.”

What we all need to remember is that Scripture says “God so loved the world.”  That means everyone. Jesus came here for EVERYONE. His perfect life was lived for all. His death was for the sins of all. His resurrection was for all people.

1 John 2:2 [Jesus] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

You can and should be confident that Jesus is your Savior. But you need to remember that He wants everyone to be saved.

1 Timothy 2:4 [God] wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.