This week we celebrate our country’s birthday. This holiday reminds me of the time during my college years when I worked as the dishwasher at a summer camp in Utah. That year the camp hired as cooks two British ladies who were touring the United States by taking jobs as they traveled. On July 4th I asked the ladies how the British marked the Fourth of July. They answered, “We celebrate America’s independence.” We all laughed at their joke, but I suspect that there may have been a kernel of truth in their response.
Have you ever thought about how people in other countries regard our Independence Day? And have you ever wondered how American missionaries who are living in foreign countries regard the Fourth? I can’t speak for others, but here are my thoughts: My wife, Jean, and I have served as missionaries in other countries including Liberia, Bangladesh, and China. And we’ve also made several visits to our family who live in Australia. These travels have resulted in us being overseas on the 4th of July, and in our being in other countries for their national days, so we have experienced being foreigners for national holidays in both ways. I always enjoyed the national day for Liberia because it happens to fall on my birthday, so every year they marked my birthday by giving me a day off and a parade!
How did we as Americans honor the national holidays for other countries? We always respected the rights of every country to be patriotic in their own way just as Americans are patriotic on the Fourth. But for us as Christian missionaries these cross-cultural experiences revealed a meaning deeper than just patriotism. Let me quote a famous line from “The Letter to Diognetus,” written in the second century AD by a Christian trying to explain Christianity to a Roman official.
In that time most countries had their own religion, usually idolatry, and most people believed in their national religion, but Christianity was different. The writer of this letter explained that Christians had no country of their own, and no particular language or culture or manner of dress. Christians were found in every country and they usually lived according to the culture of that country.
He wrote that Christians live in their home countries, but “they do so as those who are just passing through. As citizens they participate in everything with others, yet they endure everything as if they were foreigners. Every foreign land is like their homeland to them, and every land of their birth is like a land of strangers.” (5:5) Notice that line: For Christians every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign!
What an amazing statement! What does it mean? As my wife and I lived overseas, God blessed us to feel at home in foreign countries with strange cultures, but sometimes when we came “home” we felt like strangers. This 2000 year-old truth enabled us to serve as missionaries—not as ambassadors of the USA but as ambassadors of a higher kingdom, God’s Kingdom. The Letter to Diognetus continued, Christians “pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven…. They love all men and are persecuted by all.”
This letter was written in a different time when Christians were persecuted and even killed if they didn’t worship the gods of the lands where they lived. They accepted this reality because they knew that their true citizenship was in heaven. And they responded with love to those who hated them.
In the year 2025 our circumstances are quite different. There are still places in the world where Christians face violent persecution and even death for their faith, but most of us live peaceful lives. As Christians living in America we will join in the celebration of July 4th—even though we sometimes feel like strangers in our homeland.
So as we celebrate our nation’s independence, Christians should also remember two higher truths: first, national holidays are not holy-days. Second, as the author of the Letter to Diognetus wrote almost 2,000 years ago, no matter which country we live in, our true citizenship is in heaven.
Greg Giles is a published author, who, along with his wife Jean, has embraced the call to serve and teach around the globe. Their life together has included missionary work in Liberia, Bangladesh, teaching in China, and raising a family in Bemidji, Minnesota. Between global travels and local commitments, including serving as superintendent of Corn Bible Academy and their current part-time roles at Corn Heritage Village, the Gileses have found “home” in many places; yet, they now happily reside in retirement in Cordell.