This particular post has probably stewed in my draft box for longer than any here at RJsCorner in the ten or so years of its existence. It has finally ripened.

I believe we are at a point in this world where, if we are to survive, we have to start thinking and acting globally. The tribalism/populism that is happening around the today is the perhaps the last breath of rebellion against this inevitable action.  Will we eventually accept that we are a global community or will we hunker down against the BIG BAD world outside our shores? Who will win this conflict will determine how our world will be for our children or at least our grandchildren.

This epiphany is similar and related to the one I had several years ago in the spiritual realm so I want to first tell you about that as a background for this one.

I was taught at an early age that I was one of the few that God would save. The rest would go to an eternal agony! Even as a youth the dichotomy of God’s Love vs God’s Wrath was very confusing to me. I was told that God wants everyone to be with him for eternity, how come he couldn’t make that happen? I was taught that God was all-powerful but for some reason, he couldn’t get that done?

When I finally read the words in the book below that God would reconcile everyone in his own time and in his own way, the God of Love finally burst forth dispelling the god of wrath.

“How can you believe that God’s grace isn’t sufficient, that many of God’s children will languish in hell forever, that they’ll never be restored to their Father, that evil will claim victory in so many lives? How can you believe that?”…

I insisted we were free to reject God’s grace. It never occurred to me that God might be free to reject our rejection.

Gulley, Philip; Mulholland, James (2009-03-17). If Grace Is True: Why God Will Save Every Person

Finally accepting the idea of universal salvation made me realize that we are ALL God’s children and he cares for each and every one of us, not just me and a few others who looked and were taught as I was.

Getting back to the immigration issue that started this post, all of us need to recognize that we are all citizens of the world. Tribalism is an archaic and perishable belief that got us through the stone ages but it is time for that concept to fall aside in preparation for the next world order. Once we realize that we are all in this world together and that we all have value, we will finally come to accept that there is no such thing as an illegal alien, instead, they are just people like you and me who are trying to escape suffering.

It is not illegal for a person born in Indiana to move to North Carolina. In the same way eventually, there will be a free flow of people around the world.  We can’t choose where we were born but we should all have the ultimate choice as to where we will live out our lives.

Like David Brooks in a recent post, I am an incurable optimist. Of course, this won’t happen in my lifetime or maybe even for anyone presently alive, but I am convinced that it will eventually happen in the same way the all the earth’s religions will finally be reconciled with each other. I know there are some of my readers who will say my vision is naive at best, but I kinda believe as Thomas Jefferson did that “Hope is sweeter than despair”.

Finishing this post out with a slightly different twist, I don’t think the answer to any country’s problems is for its residents to flee to somewhere else. Instead, they should do what it takes to the point of even sacrificing their lives to make their homeland what they want it to be. Just running away is not the solution.