Beyond Borders

Understanding People-Gifts Beyond Geographic Locations

People Gifts – Part 1

Now that we have the theories and history lessons behind us, we would like to dig into what we affectionately mean when we use the phrase “people gifts.” Once we remove the idea that each of the groups of people as we’ve come to know them were not created as separate species, we can now remove the geographic boundaries as well. Here’s what I mean. Humanity not only has tried to create groups of people by race, but by location and geography as well. The problem with doing this as you know is that it’s not conclusive. This too creates major issues in our attempts to segregate people. In other words, we’ve tried to segregate people who were never meant to be segregated in the first place. 

The Start of Civilization
Take a look at this image. What we know is that there was once a central place where civilizations emerged. As we’ve mentioned in previous lessons on this topic, God never intended for the people on earth to remain in a central state, so to speak, or in the same location. He intended for them to scatter to the ends of the earth. I believe He has accomplished this. That being said, what we see is a result of this scattering from the north, south, east and west. The question is what does that look like. What was the result when people moved northward, southward, eastward and westward? This sounds like a simple process but when visualizing it with the diagram I’ve shared, you can see that northward not only includes north, but northeast and northwest. The same is true for the other compass cardinal directions. When you look at it using this diagram, the northeast section touches the eastward section, east-north (if that was a word). Not to make it complicated, but to illustrate this people-group-bleeding effect. Allow me to describe these four geographic areas in more detail. 

More to Scattering in Various Direction
If I can be totally honest, I hate describing people using names of places like Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas. The problem with that is called normal. Normal people that means those who have not encountered God nor have asked for His understanding will try to place labels on us that God does not. Doing so creates a mess of things. Allow me to illustrate with an example. How many continents are there? By definition, continents on earth are as many as seven, but as few as four. Now I know what you’ve been taught and that teaching is based on what’s common, normal and natural. Therefore, the answers vary. Restricting human-kind to geographic locations is not something that God does or has done. We do that to ourselves. Moving on. For the sake of helping others go to the next level when we encounter God’s people group, I have to use the terms in which we all can relate for now. So if I had to adjust the naming conventions from continents, I would use compass points like north, south, east and west. Let me show you what I mean. 

• Northward – Europe
  We will begin with the group who scattered to the north when people began to migrate. Because we know within reason where the central point started, we can conclude that the north would point us towards European countries. People migrated northward to these areas north of the center and began creating their own way of life. However, because the northward migrants have invisible borders with the westward migrants and the eastward migrants, then you have what we today call diversity. We have, for lack of a better way to describe it based on scattering, northward people who became more than Europeans, but European-Asians (Eastward), and European-Americans (Westward, not the U.S. flavor). Keep in mind that people all started from the central point with ties all of creation together.

• Eastward – Asia Proper & West Asia
  Our next conclusion brings us to the eastward section which points us to Asian countries. As people migrated further from the center, they began to create their own ways of life as I mentioned. Thus, created a group that behaves and appears directly than the one they migrated from and from the group who migrated northward. However, watch this. Because the eastward migrants have invisible borders with the northward section and the southward section, then you have more diversity. Based on this scattering of people, they became more than Asian, but Asian-Europeans, and Asian-Africans. Keep in mind that even this eastward group of people all started from the central point which ties all of creation together. One thing to note is this. The sections represent an array of subtle differences that are only noticeable when there are great distances between the two being compared. Sorry, that may have been a mouthful. May we continue?

• Southward – Africa
  Hopefully, you are beginning to grasp the picture. The southward section is not only made up of the people who migrated south of the center, but is made up of those who are impacted by its invisible bordering sections: eastward and westward. This would equate to African-Asians as well as African-Indigenous-Americans. Get the picture? Your mind should now begin to visualize these different arrays of people as we walk through each section. 

• Westward – Americas (not United States of America, American)
  This final section, westward, is no different than the rest. It has bordering sections, southward and northward. These bordering sections impact the westward section in two ways. It creates a diverse group of people who are not only westward migrants, but a mixture of westward north and westward south. This would be like having Indigenous Americans with both American-Europeans and American-Africans. I get you’ve not heard it this way before, but it is the truth. We will get into more of the details in the following installments.

What I have not mentioned is what is happening as we get closer to the center. You see what we notice most in human-beings are the extreme areas mentioned above. When we get closer to the center the differences in human-kind aren’t so different. If you examine places like the country of Georgia or Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, or Siberia, this diagram explains that varying colors, countries, and regions may be too small a picture to group people. What we should leave this installment with is that seeing people in uniquely defined groupings is impossible, but beyond this impossibly is what we call the gift of people.

The writer of the book of Acts made a point to mention that mankind was created from one central point or one man and God appointed His creation a time in history as well as the places in which we live. ^[1] The writer of Revelation grouped people not by race or even location, but rather by tribe, language, people, and nation. ^[2] In other words, the groups we try to fit people into don’t come close to the design that God has put into place for His people. It’s with this purpose, His purpose, that we have a world that displays an array of people that spreads throughout to the edges of earth.  

Question: Are you beginning to see the people on earth from a different viewpoint?

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[1] ‭‭Acts 17:26 NKJV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed April 12, 2023, https://www.bible.com/bible/114/ACT.17.26.NKJV
[2] ‭‭Revelation 5:9-10 NLT, Bible.com, accessed April 12, 2023, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/REV.5.9-10.NLT

All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.