This weekend, I visited my Brother in his apartment in downtown Toronto. As I left the bus station, I was instantly swarmed with countless advertisements, pamphlets, and men of all ages asking for spare change - anything they could get. As I continued walking, billboards promoting every possible new and must-have item of the season were plastered on any wall space available. One of these billboards read - “Tis’ the Season for Pleasin’ and Teasin’. In reading this I cringed at the sight of the promotion of sin, the promotion of sex, and the promotion of an overall hedonistic lifestyle. And as I continued to walk, that hedonism was just a part of life. I continually thought to myself, if only these people knew God; if only they knew that they have a saviour who loves them, who will forgive them, and who has the best intentions for them. It would be a better place, all of these people could do so much good if working for the highest good. As I looked up at these flashy and exciting billboards, back to the true poverty covering the streets, I remembered an article that I had just recently read.
“The city is not to be regarded as an evil invention of ungodly fallen man… The ultimate goal set before humanity at the very beginning was that human-culture should take city-form… there should be an urban structuring of human historical existence… The cultural mandate given at creation was a mandate to build the city. Now, after the fall, the city is still a benefit, serving humankind as refuge from the howling wilderness condition into which the fallen human race, exiled from paradise, has been driven… The common grace city has remedial benefits even in a fallen world. It becomes the drawing together of resources, strength and talent no longer just for mutual complementation in the task of developing the resources of the created world, but now a pooling of power for defence against attack, and as an administrative community of welfare for the relief of those destitute by reason of the cursing of the ground’ (Meredith G. Kline, ‘Kingdom Prologue’).
In this quote, I truly understood the fact that God created this city. That God is still present in this city that is full of sin. That even though Satan seemingly roams the streets, he is just a pawn in Jesus’ hand. This was clearly seen in the story of Job, when Satan had to ask permission to treat Job the way he did. Without God’s consent, he couldn’t act as he did. Satan has no power, but the Lord Jesus Christ does. He has power not only over these somewhat fallen cities, but over the cosmos and the universe.
The next place within the city I found myself was The Eaton Centre. As it was around Christmas time, I am pretty sure there were 10 million people running up and down those halls to buy gifts for their families. The amount of money flowing in and out of that mall must have been incredible. As I walked up and down the lit halls of the beautiful centre, I couldn’t help but think about other countries in the world and how they are ‘preparing’ for Christmas. The fact that children in Africa were most likely looking through garbage patches to find material they could sell, the fact that places like Vietnam most likely had children workers being forced to work 12 hour days to support their families, and our North American kids sit at home on their xbox’s while their parents spend thousands of dollars on gifts. I couldn’t help but feel like, there is something wrong here.
I felt so strongly as I left that Toronto is a city that needs God. A city where people need to hear the message of an ever powerful, loving, and encompassing Saviour who died for their sins. I saw the poverty, I saw the immense amounts of money, and I saw the sinful nature that seemed to be everywhere. I know whole heartedly that Toronto is a city where God is trying to make His way in being the focus, but we are Christians need to be His advocates and deliverers of this message. This doesn’t necessarily mean stand at Young and Dundas Square with a megaphone - yelling out the contents of Acts 2:38, but I do feel that it means we need to become an evident force within the streets and alleyways of a city created by God, for God - Toronto.
