Originally written and used as my article for the May 2002 issue of the monthly newsletter I did back then, it has been rewritten to incorporate the verses from Genesis 10: 1-9 for use here…

For four years during the very-late ‘90’s and early 2000’s I was one of the sponsors of the local youth group. During that time I tried to attend as many youth-leader-orientated classes and/or seminars that I could find. To that end, I went up to Milwaukee, WI late one winter to attend a Youth Specialties seminar, and decided to go up two days early and made a mini-vacation out of it. I left Jacksonville, IL very early the first morning and didn’t stop for lunch until I found a little place about a half-hour north of Milwaukee. The name of the place was ‘Bublitz’s Family Restaurant”, and let me tell you, the owners and the employees that we had contact with definitely had that ‘northern’ twang in their voice.

       From there, I headed on up to Oshkosh and went through the Experimental Aircraft Association air museum. And again, several of the people there had that ‘Wisconsin’ sound in their speech. But even though I was just an hour farther north than where I had eaten, the sound of their speech was just a little different. On Friday I went to the Milwaukee Zoo, and Saturday was the seminar itself, held at a big Lutheran church just some blocks north of the zoo.

At the zoo, generally, the locals’ accents weren’t as noticeable. Due to my vast experience in such things, I attributed this to the people in the city being more exposed to outside influences through being more of a part of the global economy… there are more people from other parts of the country, or world, who move to, work in, or do business with the metropolis. But at the seminar, where there were youth leaders from all over Wisconsin and parts of Illinois, one could hear a number of slightly different ways of saying something.

       A few years before all of this I had decided to climb up in a ‘big truck’ for a while, and went to work for a local trucking firm. I went to plants all over Illinois and Iowa, was in Wisconsin and Indiana, and pretty well covered the southern states…Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, as well as Tennessee, Kentucky, and Arkansas. And the accents I encountered were many. Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois all have that midwestern sound, but if one really paid attention you could notice subtle differences all along the way. In Dodge City, Kansas, you start to hear a little of the west. The Georgia peach, south of Atlanta, and the little strawberry blonde doing the paperwork in Enterprise, Alabama both had the sweetest little southern accents you might like, while people in central Arkansas sounded more like Bill Clinton. But the most pronounced of any I heard was in the offices of the little cotton plant I went to in the boot-heel of Missouri! I really had to pay attention to what was being said or I would just get lost and have to ask them to please repeat themselves…several times!

       Before Columbus touched the shores in this hemisphere each tribe, indeed each people had their own language. And I’m sure that even then there were local deviations. And since the landing of the Pilgrims, the King’s English has been corrupted with such fervor that we now sometimes have trouble understanding the King’s English! It would seem that wherever you go in this great country of ours, the English that we hear is going to sound a bit different. And when you add to that mix all of the people from other countries that come to this country and add their own accents to our English—the range of sounds that one can hear speaking the same words is just amazing! And we’ve only talked about language! There are many other differences that one can notice as you move across the country.

       At a truck stop in Mississippi I ordered iced tea with my meal and promptly tore open two packets of sweetener and put in it. Big mistake! Tea is served sweet in that part of the country. And a place in Madison, WI, served kielbasas and brats made with a variety of cheeses in them. The point is that all of us are different in one way or another. Some of those differences are due to our family heritage, some to the area where we grew up, and some are learned from the culture and society that surrounds us at any given time.

       And sometimes there can be extreme differences concerning the same topic all in the same town. How many churches do you suppose are in your town? And why? A Pastor told me once of planning a special service for Easter one year and trying to get all of the churches in his area to take part. Out of 7 or 8 churches, only 3 or 4 agreed to participate. It seems that some of their philosophies prohibited them from associating with anyone else.

       Most consider the verses from Genesis that I read as telling the story of what has come to be called the ‘Tower of Babel’. Many historians often try to debunk this as an attempt to explain why we all have developed such different languages. However, I have a book of ‘historical fiction’ where the writer did extensive research into the Babylonian empire and tied it into various Biblical accounts of that period, and it all seems fairly plausible to me! I also remember studying in one of my college art classes about the art and culture of different civilizations, and the Babylonians were quite advanced for their day! So who are we to argue about the veracity of this story from Genesis? But whether-or-not this be the source of our different languages, the fact remains that we Do all speak differently… even if we all live in the same country, wherever that country might be around the world!

       But the fact remains that, even if true, it makes NO DIFFERNCE to our relationship and acceptance to God!!

In the book of John, Chapter 14 to be exact, Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” For all of our diversities… for all of our differences…for all of our independence…for all of our individuality…there is only one way to have eternal life…there is only one way to see heaven and speak with God…there is only one gate. The King James version says, “I am the door,” Jesus is the door…the only door…to heaven. It doesn’t matter if you serve sweet tea with a southern accent, ride a bronco and talk like a Texan, or pull a plow through the soil of central Illinois and talk like normal people. It doesn’t matter if you say ‘Hail, Mary’, recite the Lord’s Prayer, or shout ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘Amen’. Jesus is our salvation…Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. Jesus is our Savior and our Lord. Jesus is the only door…the only gate…the only way…to get to Heaven. It doesn’t matter how you say it…you only have to believe it…and accept it!