Dear H,

Right now, for you, people are people. You don’t yet understand all the many ways one person differs from another. With time you will.

As you grow, learn to appreciate the diversity in humanity. In fact, you’ll have to fight to appreciate the diversity in humanity. For you see, in a broken world, we often live comfortable with those who are similar to us and suspicious of those who are different.

This should not be. We are all created in God’s image and nothing about our backgrounds change that, not social class, not economics, not ethnicity, not education, not political beliefs, and the list goes on.

Far from making us uncomfortable with each other, certain differences are meant to be celebrated. The differences in our tastes, our abilities, our skin, our cultures, and our dreams are part of God’s creative beauty infused into the story of humanity. While we should all long to be like Jesus, being like Jesus doesn’t mean that we all think, look, and act exactly like one another in these good differences.

We should neither try to force others into our mold nor should we refuse to surround ourselves with a diversity of others. Instead, we should celebrate the good things that make you you and me me, and enjoy the multifaceted expressions of God’s creation.

Love,

Dad

We are one body with many, different parts.

1 Corinthians 12:12

Image source: Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash