So many of us, if not all of us, in the Black community are immigrants from either a Caribbean island or an African nation.
Our sojourning began either with us our generations before us, but the fact of the matter is that this land that we call home embraced us. We have contributed to its development, advancement and culture in one way or another.
So, as much as many Black Canadians like to say “back home” referring to the island or country they or their ancestors lived at one point. I hope we can also acknowledge the home we have here in Canada. The place where God graciously provides bread and butter. The place where God has given you wisdom to obtain wealth. The place where God favored the education of you and your children. For so many of us this wonderful country gave us opportunities we would not have elsewhere. We pay taxes, we have taken up space and properties in this land as homeowners and tenants and in doing so this is home. If some of us reflect on the matter well enough, we would realize that for many of us, we’ve spent more time in this home than in the land where we were born.
When we consider all the ways God has blessed us in this land; we honour the Lord and His blessings by acknowledging the land as home. So let us celebrate Canada this July 1st by acknowledging the land as home. Bless Canada! Thank God for Canada.
Let us pray for Canada. Let us pray for the rulers and leaders of the country. Let us pray for the economic condition of the country. Let us pray for social justice and any improvements you feel should take place in the land. Bring it all to God, the father, because the earth is the Lord’s and all that dwells within it. Therefore, even Canada is the Lord’s.
We have all been given a role of stewardship to occupy, have dominion over and maintain the land but God is still the chief landowner. So let us bring our cares, concerns and thanksgiving about Canada to Him.
I love that our national anthem acknowledges God, the landowner, and prayerfully seeks the preservation of God for land and its freedom. It says, “God keep our land, glorious and free” The glory of the land is God’s presence. Let us pray that Canada would put God back in the equation of the affairs of the land. Jesus says, speaking of himself, that whoever the son (Jesus Christ) sets free is free indeed. So as the lyrics of the anthem echoes a plea for freedom. I encourage us all to accept the words of the one to whom the prayer is addressed and accept that He gives freedom for the land and all of us who call it home.
My prayer for this Canada Day is that Canada would receive Jesus and in doing so, would receive the freedom she so longs for.
Within the national anthem there is a last verse that is scarcely ever sung but perhaps it is time for us to sing it again as a nation? Read it here below …
Ruler Supreme, Who hearest humble prayer,
Hold our dominion within Thy loving care.
Help us to find, O God, in Thee
A lasting, rich reward,
As waiting for the Better Day,
We ever stand on guard.
Even the French version has a hidden prayer and proclamation that is well needed in our days. The translation of the unsung French version goes as follows :
Sacred love of throne and altar,
Fill our hearts with your immortal breath!
Among foreign races,
Our guide is the law;
Let us be a people of brothers,
Under the yoke of faith.
And let us repeat, like our fathers,
The victorious cry: “For Christ and the King.”
The victorious cry: “For Christ and the King.”
If we combine these two verses it desires that all who live in the land would live like brothers through faith in Jesus Christ, all having received breath granted by God himself. It is knowing that God loves us and hears our prayers. May we like generations before us victoriously proclaim Christ and honor those whom God established to run the country.
It is good food for thought…think about it and pray about it this Canada Day.
Blessings
