This week is Culture Week here at SMRT! It's time to look around and celebrate the incredibly rich mix of backgrounds that makes our school community so special. Let’s start with a chat together:

What are you planning to wear for Culture Day, and what is the story or meaning behind it? (If you aren't wearing traditional dress, what colours or symbols are you choosing to represent your heritage?)

How else are we celebrating Culture Week across SMRT this week? Think about food, music, assemblies, or languages you’ve noticed around the school.

Why do you think it is important to have Culture Day at SMRT?

It’s more than just a fun day or a break from uniform. Culture Day is a statement about who we are. It is a chance to say: I see you, I value your heritage, and our school is better because you are here. When we share our traditions, clothes, and stories, we build a community rooted in respect, curiosity, and pride.

As a church school, our celebration of diversity isn't just a modern idea – it’s a deeply spiritual one. In fact, the Bible tells us that Heaven is going to look a lot like our Culture Day.

Listen to how the writer of Revelation describes his vision of the ultimate, eternal celebration:

After this I looked, and there was an enormous crowd—no one could count all the people! They were from every race, tribe, nation, and language, and they stood in front of the throne……They called out in a loud voice: 'Salvation comes from our God, who sits on the throne'…..All the angels stood around the throne… and worshipped God, saying, 'Amen! Praise, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honour, power, and might belong to our God forever and ever! Amen! ^{Revelation 7:9-12}

In heaven, God doesn’t erase our differences to make us all the same. Instead, every language, every culture, and every background is there, side-by-side, perfectly united but beautifully diverse. When we celebrate Culture Week at SMRT, we are getting a little "taste of heaven" right here in our classrooms.

Let’s take a moment of quiet as we pray together, or simply reflect on the week ahead.

Heavenly Father,

Thank you that you are a God of creativity and variety. Thank you that we are not all clones, but that you have made each of us unique, distinct, and precious.

Help us to look at the differences in others not with judgment or confusion, but with value, respect, and joy. Thank you for the privilege of celebrating all the different cultures represented in our school this week.

May our school look a little more like heaven today.

Amen

*Image from Magnific