Phyllis Nissila

When it was time to teach my Citizenship class about our nation’s anthem “The Star Spangled Banner” I asked if anyone would like to sing their country’s anthem. Some students took me up on that invitation. Over time I had the opportunity to listen to the national songs of a number of countries. Students sang their homeland songs with pride. The class listened with delight.

The patriotic zeal that inspires anthems connotes a passion reserved for few other endeavors, and many such songs cite God or some other guiding light in reference to their nation’s origins and purpose. So I sometimes wonder what heaven’s anthem would be, what Gloria Patri might resonate in our spiritual homeland.

It would no doubt reference God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as some anthems honor homeland VIPs.

It would no doubt feature the battle to regain lost spiritual territory, as some anthems incorporate the struggles that establish nations.

It would no doubt include a symbol, such as a flag, as many anthems do. In heaven’s song this would surely be the cross that, at the intersection of time, shattered Satan’s manhold and revealed God’s answer to the reparation for sin in one earth-breaking, sky-renting, dead-raising afternoon.

And assuredly, heaven’s anthem would feature the gratitude of countless “citizens” amassed from millennia united in one, never-ending song of thanksgiving, one everlasting Hallelujah Chorus to the One Who, on that cross, paid the price of entrance for each.

Join you there?

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Photo from the public domain