I was born on a Sunday morning, 12 June, 1966, in a small town in Loudon County, Tennessee, in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. That town was called Lenoir City. I do not remember much about Lenoir City, nor Loudon County, as I was quite young at the time. My family would only live there a few more weeks after my birth before moving to Panama and then to Barbados, where my parents served as missionaries.

Having been born in the US to native-born US citizens, I never had to think about whether or not I might be an “American,” because I just was. Even when we were living outside of the US, I and my family were Americans. And it didn’t just feel that way, it was in fact that way. I was an American citizen. I had been from the moment I inhaled my first breath of pine-scented Smoky Mountain air on that summer Sunday morning in 1966. My citizenship had never been in question—it was a given, my birthright. While I did not take my citizenship for granted, it was also never something I gave much thought to except perhaps while watching the fireworks on the Fourth of July or listening to the national anthem at the start of an Atlanta Braves baseball game.

But for the past seven years, both I and my wife Tasha have given a lot of thought to citizenship and to what it means.

On 30 October, we both saw the completion of the long, costly, and arduous process to become UK citizens. Our citizenship ceremony marked the end of years of visa applications, fees, interviews, a “Life in the UK” exam, and other hoops we had to jump through because we wanted to be citizens of this wonderful country whose people we love so much, and which has given us so much over the past seven years. The process has given me a firsthand appreciation for those immigrants who make the choice and put in the effort to become citizens of a country they love.

In Philippians 3, the Apostle Paul tells us that followers of Christ are citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom. And I realize the importance and meaning of that sentiment, but I also know the importance and meaning of being a citizen of this United Kingdom, and I am grateful to say that I am.