The author worked for many years for an international aid organization, has lived in many countries, and has had contact with various nationalities and ethnic groups. The article originally appeared in The Herald of Christian Science (French Edition) in April 1997.
When you think of a certain country, do you feel superior or even contemptuous toward it? As though that country were lacking in culture or real value?
An account in the Bible tells of a man who used to think that way: Nathanael. Philip, one of the first of Jesus' disciples, tried to tell Nathanael about his meeting with the Messiah. Philip said that the one of whom the prophets had spoken, for whom all the Jewish people waited, was in fact Jesus of Nazareth. Nathanael's response to this glad news was rather cynical: "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" John 1:46.
