The town I grew up in, at the time, did not have soccer. I played football and baseball through high school but was always a bit confused by the world’s most popular sport, thinking it must be some highfallutin’ European thing where a draw (tie!) is…celebrated?
To be honest, it’s taken me most of my 41 years to truly appreciate the game for what it is (my kids playing helped that tremendously—though it took me a while to come around to offside being a good thing).
But this year’s World Cup, hosted here in North America, has been the first time I’ve truly, fervently followed this event and to keep it short, I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.
The pageantry.
The passion of fans from all over the world that sometimes makes rabid college football fans seem tame in comparison.
The stunning difficulty of getting that little ball into that big ol’ net.
The thunderous, stadium-shaking response when it does.
HOW MUCH FUN PKs are to watch.
But if you are anything like me—almost equally as fun as the games has been the steady stream of social media content by people from other countries visiting here for the first time and being like, “Umm…this place is kind of amazing you guys…”
Far from the negative perceptions they had received through media, they found our country gorgeous, our stadiums awe-inspiring, our BBQ otherworldly, our Walmarts and Costcos unthinkably large, and most importantly our people warm and hospitable—not to mention the evident genius of something as simple as…ranch dressing.
On the other side of the coin, I’ve seen stories highlighting the head-turning things that visiting nations do, like Japanese fans cleaning up stadiums, Uzbekistan fans parading through Houston on horseback in full armor to show a vibrant aspect of their culture to locals, the Iranian team leaving behind pristine locker rooms and thoughtful thank you notes to their host cities, or Scotland’s Tartan Army raising money for local charities.
And recently, while thinking about all of this, these verses came to mind from Revelation 21 about the New Jerusalem that will one day descend from heaven when Christ reunites heaven and Earth:
22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
-Revelation 21:22-26 (emphasis mine)
And I thought, how cool is it that we, in a small way, get to see a glimpse of what is coming that day, when the redeemed from all peoples of the Earth bring their own particular glories into that great city?
Their colors, their languages, their honor?
I thought of the ending of one of my favorite novels, Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, where (spoiler alert) the main character, an asthma-ridden boy named Rueben Land is on an operating table and has a vision of what those verses describe.
He sees different nations marching toward a boisterous homecoming in a distant city, each in their own attire, a history-sweeping mosaic. Their individual identities are intact and heightened as they laugh and sing and celebrate in their march toward the New Jerusalem.
Music seems to be coming out of the land itself, Reuben thinks, in a way that propels him toward the city, asthma-free. (I’ll save other details in case you haven’t read—)
"Like a rhyme learned in antiquity a verse blazed to mind: O be quick, my soul, to answer Him; be jubilant, my feet! And sure enough my soul leapt dancing inside my chest, and my feet sprang up and sped me forward, and the sense came to me of undergoing creation..."
"I felt prodded to appear before the master. The place had a master! Realizing this, I knew he was already aware of me—comforting and fearful knowledge. Still I wanted to see him. The farther I went the more I seemed to know or remember about him—the way he'd planted this orchard, walking over the hills, casting seed from his hand."
Excerpt from Peace Like a River
The scene—emblazoned in my memory since I first read it 15 years ago or more—is a global family reunion of sorts. A parade of unspeakable glory, onward to the Master, the likes of which the world has never seen.
And, so—back to the World Cup—quite meager in comparison to that but still a cool glimpse of what is to come for those in Christ.
When I hear fans sing “Country Roads, Take Me Home” post-match, I think about, well, a different—more lasting home. One that is still this radiant Earth we adore, but far better.
When I hear the gathered nations sing their national anthems, most of which I’ve never heard and don’t understand a word of, I think about this scene:
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
-Revelation 7:9-10
I think about how wonderful it is that we have a God who loves the nations. That God so loved not just one nation but “the world,” that he gave his only begotten Son for them. For us—all of us Gentiles blessed to be included in God’s cosmic rescue plan.
He loves the many fellow Americans I’m thankful to share a country with and he loves my son from China and he loves my dear friends from Iran and he loves my neighbor from Bulgaria and my other neighbors from India—and he will see to it that he is worshipped in every one of those languages and countless more until we do so on that great coming day when we as his redeemed march toward that city and bring our different glories into it.
I’ve always sensed that we have some glories worth keeping in the New Heavens/New Earth. How much more real and glorious might our mountains and beaches and canyons be there, when all creation is redeemed and perfected in God’s eternal delight?
But at the same time, I never would have thought that one of the glories we Americans might bring in would be ranch dressing or biscuits and gravy, but you know what, maybe so…
And, in the meantime…go USA!
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