Last summer, when I was 15, I went to a mock government camp for homeschoolers called iGov-ern run by HSLDA. At the camp, we participated in a government simulation. During my first week, I took on the role of a senator. During the second week, I was an ambassador to the United Nations. It was really fun but also very stressful, because I had to help keep the world from falling apart.

When a world catastrophe happens, you have to work in the interest of your country. We tried to pull some shenanigans in the UN; so, on the second day, we were taught about how we were representing our country, and it didn’t matter what our personal views were. Your country can see how you act; and if you don’t act the way they want, some countries might just fire you. Others might kill you or send you to Siberia.

The Sunday after I got home, my pastor used the term “ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven.” I’d heard the phrase before, and it wasn’t even the main point of his sermon, but it stuck out to me. I thought about how often, instead of representing God, we betray Him. Yet, instead of killing us or sending us to Siberia (or hell), He adopts us.

I also thought of how stressful the responsibility of being an ambassador is because of the gravity of the decisions one has to make. That’s how our whole lives should be, because we’re ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven.

Sitting in the UN meetings, I thought: Wow, in real life, countries have to choose one person out of their whole population to represent them to the world, someone they trust enough not to betray them. It must be really hard to become an ambassador, even if you’re from a small country. But even the greatest kingdoms on earth can’t compare with the kingdom of heaven.

Another thing about ambassadors is that there can be many ambassadors from one country who are representing it to many different countries. As Christians, we’re all ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven, but we represent it to different people in our lives.

When we think how imperfectly we represent the kingdom of heaven, we realize how powerful God is. He can take terrible people like us and make us into His ambassadors. We should be mindful of how we represent Him. It’s our job to speak and act for Christ in this world.