[You] have put on the new man, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
— Colossians 3:10-11
After becoming an American I found that yes, the riches are here, but it is not the way the movies portrayed it. To enter into the riches in America, you have to labor. You do not find money blowing about on the streets, as those old movies seemed to imply. America is a rich country, but in order to experience the riches in this country you must develop your “talent.” In other countries, parents may forbid their children from pursuing certain vocations such as the arts, but in the United States there is the philosophy that everyone should be happy and pursue what is within him.
In this sense, I also have become an American, for instead of pursuing “profitable” fields such as engineering or mathematics, as many Oriental parents urge their children to do, I received my degrees in literature and library science. As an American, I have not only enjoyed the riches here, but I have also experienced the freedom to pursue. I use this as an illustration of how Colossians depicts Christ to us. We should enjoy the riches of Christ as those who have been placed in Him, and we should experience pursuing Him as those who are now enjoying Him.
Adapted from Oneness and the One Accord, page 74.
Tomorrow: “Holding Christ as the Head” (1)