Precisely one year ago I wrote a little article called “On Canada Day and Kissing The Mailman.” It was a mournful reflection on my lack of desire to celebrate Canada Day (which for you Yanks and other foreigners, is the day we remember Canada’s birthday. I’ll let you read a version of it I’ve modified only a little bit:
Today is Canada Day. Supposedly this means that Canadians take a little bit of time on this holiday to be thankful for the country they live in. In reality, of course, most Canadians head to their cottages and drink themselves silly (a long-standing Canadian tradition) and think only of their country when they see a maple leaf on their bottles of beer. Sadly, most have lost the ability to see much of anything long before the day is through. And of course fireworks light the skies once the sun finally sets around 9:30 or 10:00.
I am having some difficulty celebrating Canada this year. It was just a few days ago that Canadians proved themselves to be irreversibly corrupt by electing a party known more for their scandal and mismanagement than for their fiscal policies and care for our nation. While at one point it seemed that a party dedicated to restoring a Biblical view of family and to providing governmental accountability had a chance of winning the election, this party fell out of favor when the opponents showed how they might remove laws allowing homosexual marriage and change Canada’s current stance on abortion. Of course Canada has no law on abortion so changing the current stance might just mean instituting a law, but I digress. Canada chose to prove its absolute hatred for God and for all things righteous. What lost the election for the Conservative Party was their belief in Biblical definitions of family and in a hatred for the murder of unborn children.
So this year, as I reflect on my country, I feel a bit like a man who has caught his wife kissing the mailman the day before they were to celebrate their anniversary. I feel no real desire to celebrate my nation today and am both disappointed and disillusioned.
So I will take the opportunity to thank God for providing me a nation where, for the time being, I am able to raise my family to know and love the Lord. I thank God for freedom and safety. Perhaps in a week or two I will take some time to celebrate my nation, but not for now. The pain is still too fresh in my mind.
That was a year ago. This year Canada Day falls only a few days after the final reading of a new law that allows homosexual marraige. I wrote about this last week in an article entitled Becoming Compassionate Truth-Tellers. This year has also seen the scandals surrounding the Liberal government grow. The corruption at the top of the party appears to be complete. Hundreds of millions of dollars was taken from tax-payers and given to friends of prominent politicians and party-leaders. They also bought-off a member of the Conservative Party, offering her a cushy cabinet post if she would cross the floor and ensure them a victory in an important House vote. Tax cuts were scrapped, the health care system continues to degrade…I could go on and on. If I was feeling blue when examining the state of the nation last year, I feel even worse this year.
Or I should.
But I don’t.
I guess this year my confidence in God has increased and I know that all of these things merely point towards the truth of God’s Word. Nations will continue to stray farther and farther from God. The Laws will become increasingly ungodly. Yet through it all, God is ever in control. I can’t help but be reminded of Psalm 2. “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his anointed.” But what is God’s reaction to this? “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.” In their burning desire to do evil, the nations only make God laugh. He holds them in derision, knowing that He is supreme and that His purposes will prevail. And that is my comfort on this day.
