To those of you who don't know, we are hoping to apply for and get dual citizenship in Italy, through descent. My maternal grandfather (pictured on the front of my last post, "The Lonely Graves") was 100% Italian. His parents, both born in the same town in Italy, both moved to the United States as children around 1905. I grew up knowing my great grandmother. She passed away at the age of 92, back in 1994.
While we were taking care of my maternal grandmother in South Carolina, my husband was looking at different places with affordable land. One of the cheapest places that he found was in Sicily. I said, "That's where my relatives are from!” A couple of days later, he came to me and announced, "You could become an Italian citizen, and then the children and I could become citizens through you!"
The more that I have researched this, I have found out that there are actually quite a lot of Americans with Italian descent that are also trying to do the same thing. There are many reasons why doing this is advantageous. Typically, you are only allowed to stay in the EU for 90 days in a six month period. It allows people to freely live, travel, work anywhere in the EU, and more. This was appealing to us.
Last year I began gathering the necessary documents, such as the birth certificates and marriage licenses which prove my Italian ancestry. Over the past week I have spent most of my free time learning as much as I can about the requirements and the process. There are many different things that can disqualify a person with Italian lineage. We don't want to move our family to Italy with high hopes and then be turned away, especially after giving up our rental home in Albania.
I realized last night while I was in bed, that there are a lot of similarities between this earthly scenario and the heavenly one. Heaven is a place that most people want to go to after death. Most people assume that they will be welcomed in by their maker.
Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:13-14
Jesus said a few verses later in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Would a want to be before Him after our death, or His return, expecting to enter into heaven with Him, only to have this happen to us?
The apostille Paul exhorted the Christians, "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling," in Philippians 2:12b. How carefully should we be checking the Scriptures to make sure that we understand what the King and Judge of heaven"s requirements are?
Shouldn't we be looking into the Bible thoroughly to learn more about this wonderful King and His Kingdom? Shouldn't we be talking to others who are also citizens of this great land and find enjoyment that we share the same hope and homeland? Shouldn't we be trying to urge those who aren't interested or assume that they will automatically enter in?
"Therefore, since we know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men." 2 Corinthians 5:11a. Christians are sometimes considered odd or hateful. When you're reading God's Word, you want to save others from the destruction that you know sin will bring, and help them to know how wonderful God is as well as the life and hope that He gives.
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