Each time I see an opening ceremony for the Olympics, I wish the world could live in peace, with grace toward all. Of course, I know from my Christian perspective, that the Peaceable Kingdom one day will indeed come. It will not be as John Lennon saw it in “Imagine.” At the risk of copyright infringement, I ask you to look up the lyrics. His world is not the one I want to live in.
As I watched the innocence of the well-rehearsed children’s choirs, and even as we chuckled that President Putin was alone and asleep, I thought that this gathering of world athletes was indeed a good thing, until I remembered that because of the COVID pandemic (ostensibly begun in China and exported around the world) we really could not be united. In a ceremony which exuded technical prowess, where was the human factor? We understand the country is locked down. The athletes are too. The careful controls were evident, although masks were not visible on the Chinese performers, soldiers, dancers, and officials. Once again, just as in our country, we see the “say one thing and do another” by some of our leaders who delight in exercising control.
What, then, are we to learn from the opening of the Olympic games? Once more, beneath the surface, is an elevated sense of man’s accomplishment, his persistence, his energy devoted to excellence, his selfish ambition (perhaps), and his overcoming obstacles to achieve a purpose. Man has always strived to achieve. However, competition necessarily chooses winners and losers, success and failure, and alas, hero worship. The fleeting prize of medals, recognition, and boasts may, like the first chapter of Ecclesiastes, be vanity or nothingness in the long run.
We as spectators can clap, our mouths agape at the thrills, chills, spills, and amazement at what our physical bodies and strong will can achieve. It is glorified entertainment because the outcome has not occurred yet. But, in international relations, we may forget amassed troops at a border, flyovers threatening Taiwan, civil unrest and murder in American cities, race wars which divide the fabric of the greatest nation on earth, and godless secularism and Woke theories destroying our nation from within. As we pause to watch the skaters leap, the skiers fly, or the curlers sweep, let us “imagine” a world where the flags indeed stand in rows of unity for one moment in time.
About the Author
