“Look here — I think these kids are twins.” I looked at the photo my sister had snapped of two children. They did look alike. They were eating plums (before their mother had finished paying for them, obviously), and they were wearing similar clothes — the “I love Nepal” t-shirts that have come into fashion this summer.
It seems that people love wearing those shirts. When we are traveling, my sister and I can count “countless” people wearing those kind of shirts. In addition to “I love Nepal,” we’ve seen “I love Katmandu”, “I love Nawalparasi” (a district), and even an “I love China” — though why a Nepali would want to wear that, I do not know.
Those t-shirts are catchy — they stand out. Not because they are so strange as in the new message they are promoting in our country. If people had worn them during the civil war 10 years ago, it might have passed for sarcasm. Today, it is all the range to wear them.
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What does it mean to love your country? Is it to wear a t-shirt that says so? Or is it something more? Something more, everyone would agree. If one loves something, it is valuable to him. It means something to him. It is in his priority list.
“I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.”
Everyone knows that Nathan Hale loved his country — enough to give his life for its sake. How could he? Because his country topped his priority list.
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Leaving patriotism aside, I want to ask, what is it that you love — your country, your family, your friends, your work, your church, your God? True, God has richly given us all things to enjoy, but He has said:
“If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”— Luke 14:26
We are to love Him so that all our other loves are not to be compared to it — if compared, they could be seen as hate. Even our very own lives are we not to deem more precious as to keep it back from Him.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.— Matthew 16:24
Then, are we today wearing the clothes to show that we love Him — the robe of righteousness, the belt of truth, the shoes of the preparation of the gospel? Wearing them does not mean that you automatically begin to love Him (or even that you love Him at all), but it is a good indication that you do.
Have others seen you in them? The message we have of showing we are His is not popular or fashionable in this world. It stands out — in a way that people don’t want to stand out. But if we love Him, if He is our priority, if He is our treasure and inheritance, shall we not be His witnesses?
O that our hearts were ever united that we may love Him first and foremost always!