I recently saw this video clip about DNA. It is having a profound effect on me for a couple of different reasons.

First, my husband and I recently did our DNA tests through Ancestry.com.  My husband is adopted, and we were curious about his background.  I also had unanswered questions about my background as well. So we both spit in a vial and took the test.

It was both exhilarating and unnerving to read our test results.  I will not go into our ethnic backgrounds here, however, suffice it to say that in my case, there was a country that I have had some mild negative feelings about.  Suddenly, after realizing that I now, in part, share the ethnicity of this specific country, it brought a cascade of emotions about . . . my identity,  myself, of who I think I am, or who I thought I was.  Get the picture?

Second, I really had not thought of myself as a racist person.  However, generalized, negative thoughts toward a people group are the seeds of racism.  Racism at any level is unacceptable. Racist thoughts that go unchecked become racist thought patterns which then become racist acts.  The word ‘racist’, according to the Oxford Dictionary, means: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.

When we stand before God in the next life, we will stand as individuals.  Not as ethnic groups, races, people groups, nations or religions.  As will stand as individuals who chose to be ‘doers’ of the Word of God and not just ‘hearers’ (James 1:22).

My hope and prayer for you as you watch this video is that it will encourage you (1) do your DNA test!! and (2) ask God to enlarge your heart to include every tribe, tongue, people and nation (Revelation 5:9) because that is His heart.