Day 6: God of This City

At the end of the week at camp this summer, we sang this song around the campfire.  One of the weeks there was a group of kids from the south side of the city of Chicago.  These kids were so sweet and had fun, unique personalities.  The girls referred to me as grandma Sarah, ever so fondly.  They thought I had an old spirit.  The backwoods of Wisconsin were far different from the concrete city they were used to.  And minus a few mosquitoes and some crazy deer, much safer.  But just as God was with them in the safety of Green Lake, God has been with them, and all of the other campers in their own cities.
God is the God of every city.  I think that is hard to realize sometimes when I see images of the Middle East on the news and there are no sidewalks, no trees and sometimes no buildings or cars because they've been destroyed by bombs.  But that is a city too, and God is alive and at work there.
In my History of the Old Testament class last spring, my professor had us watch a video of a man from the 700 club or a similar network.  The man was commenting on a natural disaster that had taken place in Haiti, and how the Haitians had made a treaty with the devil, which brought on such despair for their nation.  My professor then slyly asked what we thought of the video.  One student raised his hand and said, "that guy is a..." (You can use your imagination and fill in the rest).
God is the God of Haiti.  God is the God of Iraq and Afghanistan.  God is the God of Sudan, and God is the God of France and Spain.  When we pledge our allegiance to our home country, we say "One nation under God."  That is just it, we are one of the nations under God, one of the many where His people live.
God is the God of every city.  I believe that he dwells among all of His children, whether they realize it or not.  He also dwells in our hearts.  Once He dwells within us, He is within the home, the school, the church and the city that we live in.  Our hearts are a city for God and He is building and reconstructing, constantly.
~SP