I was at the STRONG men’s meeting at church and struck up a conversation at breakfast with a guy from southend. It was a new experience for me because I was relatively new and the guys did not come in early. Keith from production was there, so he was able to carry-on the talk with more familiar elements.
The introduction a led to talking about “where we were from?” and he revelead that even though he always thought he was Ukrainian, his research using gene mapping and matching revealed he was 70% German. I could see it was a big deal for him and though somewhere in my mind I felt like “kini gbogbo eleyi bayii”, I was amused by his story.
It turns out his family has always been Ukrainian, it has been passed down that way from generations. The revelation that he was more German if not fully, was a huge awakening to him. It brought a lot of questioning and kind of gave him a better outlook to life, it also served as a major talking point for our small group before the event started.
From the small discussion I learnt
- You can claim to be from a place even when you are truly from another
- Claiming to be from a place doesn’t change the fact that you are from another place
- You can join in the experience of a place because you choose to identify with them even though you belong to a different place.
- Your genetic make up makes your experiences different from that of people in a place (people in Ukraine suffer from a particular disease, he didn’t, cause he was actually German)
Later in the day, the guys and I had a great time at Oyin’s place. She hosted us to a sumptous evening of fun and laughter, we discussed issues surrounding life and spirituality and when we were going to leave, Lekan raised a song, we are heirs of the father…it took some getting used to, knowing a lot of the songs we’ve come to know are a lot different.
Our parting prayers touched on the fact that what really brings us together is not our nationality as Nigerians but the blood of Jesus. While we came from the same country, the cords that tied us together where much stronger. We identified with the blood and not necessarily our nationality, we understood our “spiritual genome” and chose to identify with it rather than our natural ties and affiliations.
When we identify with Christ, we are trying to be what we are not or claiming a nationality. It is a birthing, a change in our “genetic” make up, for if anyone is in Christ he is a “new creature”, old things are passed away and all things are made new. God doesn’t just change our “nationality” he changes our “genetics” we who once we’re children of darkness, are now children of the light.