It’s a simple vision. Every kind of people. A countless throng of them.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands … (Rev. 7:9)
This brief passage points to the end of racism because it points to something bigger and better and far more definitive than race. Everyone in the passage is pointing toward Jesus.
Jesus loves all kinds of people and all kinds of people love him back. Relationship with Jesus defines their relationships with one another. He is their commonality.
But beyond Jesus, they are a wide and wild group. They have no other common language, no other common color, no other common culture. As such, they are like the most beautiful of gardens — flowers of all shapes and sizes and origins and colors thrown together in a massive mess of loveliness.
The end of racism requires two things — a common focus that is bigger than our differences and a common appreciation of difference and variety. Unity without uniformity. Diversity without division.