God’s Unique and Diverse Garden
Not to be outdone by anyone EVER, our God is the all-encompassing Master at EVERYTHING – especially in His craftsmanship, creativity, and His exquisite attention to details. His one-of-a-kind varieties of places, things and living things (animate AND inanimate) makes Him second to none. I mean just think about the differences in the terrain all over the world, the estimated over 400,000 flowering plant species and all the estimated number of animal species falls somewhere in the vast range of three to 30 million. (Thanks again, Google!) And, then the big finale of all His creation was to create human beings (and I might add – created in His image)! Back in my day, I might have said about all that brilliance and genius….. COWABUNGA!
Just think of it….God could have chosen the colors of black and white for everything He created, but He chose color and cultures and ethnicities and beliefs and languages. And, the best news ever. individually, He had unique you and unique me and everyone wherever they are — jungle, city, country, island, wherever they are — with each of our individual specifications in mind.
I live in a unique community where every single one of us are different from the others. We dress differently. We talk differently. We believe differently. We act differently. We think differently. We have different backgrounds and different family relationships. Some still work full time, part time, or are retired. There are singles and marrieds. We come from various walks of life: attorneys, doctors, farmers, nurses, pastors, teachers, engineers, and everything in between. It’s great hearing about our diversities that we all bring to our community family table.
God, in His brilliant, creative genius gave this world such beauty in diversity. Imagine a garden filled with flowers, but every flower was the same color, same leaves, same fragrance. Just sameness. Wouldn’t that just be monotonous? But God created this world, AND mankind, that included you and me, with such splendid and spectacular diversity.
This time of year, we witness the most beautiful gardens that are blossoming with richness of diversity. Bright yellows, reds, deep purples, and blues. In the same way, His kids, you and me, exemplify the beauty of diversity. We are male and female, tall and short, full bodied and slim bodied, dark skin and light skin. God’s kids are so beautifully diverse.
The amazing truth, no matter what we look like, is that we are all equally important. We need the quiet janitor/housekeeper who cleans the bathrooms and sweeps the floor as much as we need the talkative entertainer who loves the limelight and the stage. We need the pastors. We have five pastors that live in this community. What a blessing! They are taking turns to speak and minister to whoever comes to their Sunday morning service. We need the outgoing and confident leader as much as we need the quiet introvert. We have gals who are gifted with hospitality. That is their calling and you’ll see them conjuring up ideas for the next event. And, they are also the ones you’ll see cleaning up after an event.
But, most of all, we need each other. We need the encouragers, the givers, the servers, the teachers, those who will take charge and lead and we need those who are willing to be followers and to be led. Just think how wonderful this world would be if we all just understood God’s unique love for His creation — diverse, yet all so loved. Maybe we should start recognizing each other as equally and uniquely important and loved by Father God. As for you and me? He wants us NOT to be different from Him. He wants us to BE LIKE HIM — spreading His love to the rest of the family.
“What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it–we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are.” – 1 John 3:1