Holding hope that Iran’s Mary-honored Metro Station opens doors to share the real Christmas story.

By Lana Silk

“This is merely a show of solidarity and acceptance towards Christians — while in the background they are arresting, torturing, imprisoning and killing them. This whole stunt is so they can silence the mouths of the rest of the world and have them look and say, ‘See how accepting they are with Christians? They are even naming a metro after their saint.’”

– Armenian Christian from Iran

All Aboard

Just in time for the upcoming holiday season, Iran has announced its new “Virgin Mary” metro station located in the nation’s capital Tehran, piquing interest from the Western world on if Iran’s regime has changed its tune.

But, we’re certainly in for a ride to think this means the Islamic regime is becoming more tolerant. In fact, this stunt suggests no such thing: The Islamic faith respects Mary and her name appears many times in the Quran — but not as the mother of God. This calculated publicity move may posture Iran as a more “open,” “accepting,” and even “more Christian” nation to the rest of the world. Yet, behind the façade, the Iranian people’s ongoing fight for free speech, expression and faith is met with intensified government crackdowns — marked by arrests, physical abuse, executions and disappearances — that tell a very different story.

But There’s More to This Story Than the Regime’s Stranglehold

While Iran’s government may have another agenda, we know two things:

1. God can turn all that the enemy means for evil to make it for eternal good. (Genesis 50:20)
2. Those who seek the truth will find it. (Matthew 7:7)

This new metro station, sure to honor Mary and not Jesus, still presents an opportunity for Muslim seekers to ask questions about the nativity story, and therefore, about the living Christ — and all just in time for Christmas.

God is bigger than dictatorships, and the message of Jesus is victorious.

Jesus hasn’t forgotten Iran. While the government’s guise of progressivism is simply one step further in a grander plan to divert attention away from its abuse toward the Iranian people, I’m eager to see how God uses even this gesture to stir curiosity within hearts.

After all, He’s using technology despite all attempts from the regime to halt communication and internet bandwidth. He’s using dauntless people’s voice regardless of countless arrests and public killings. He’s using dreams and visions to infiltrate the lives of those most opposed to Him. And He’s using the truth to wake the Iranian people up, now in rebellion against their own government, despite all propaganda narratives they’ve been fed.

How Will God Intercept This Time, and What is Our Role in it All?

Like Christ Jesus, we must not forget Iran in the stir of news about the Middle East. Despite the atrocities of the Iranian regime, the people of Iran are not “wicked,” “brainwashed” or universally against goodness.

Iran is not standing as a united front. The people of Iran are greater victims of their own government than anyone else. Many Christians in Iran are in hiding, now more than ever. Hiding their faith. Hiding their Bibles. Hiding their internet history, all as they seek to better understand and share answers of truth with others.

Therefore, we must pray for these souls. Pray that this new metro station would be for the good, that Iranians would be met by Jesus this Christmas — all in their search for truth, justice and real hope. Challenging American Christians to pray for the people of Iran is a big ask, but it’s a biblical one. We cannot give up praying that Muslims would encounter Jesus in miraculous ways and be met by the Holy Spirit. We cannot lose hope that the Iranian church will continue to grow in secret.

The Bible prophesies about Iran turning back to Him, and I know that we are seeing the beginning of that time right now.

“I will set my throne in Elam and destroy her king and officials.” Jeremiah 49:38

Pray for Iran and amplify the voices of the oppressed. Follow God’s Word. Take part in the Kingdom story that is being written in a nation so hungry for the Gospel.

Lana Silk serves as Chief Executive Officer (USA) of Transform Iran. In this role, Lana actively seeks to bring freedom to the people of Iran, transforming the nation into one which bears the image of Christ. Through ministry and humanitarian aid, Lana hopes that Transform Iran will create divine change in the lives of the Iranian people. She is tri-lingual and considers it her life calling to represent and advocate for the people of Iran in the West. Lana currently lives with her husband and three children in Ohio, actively operating Transform Iran’s mission.

Originally published on: The Stream