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| Credit: brianlean.wordpress |
We can say without a doubt that God delights in diversity.
What else could we believe of a God
who created both pygmy seahorses (no bigger than 1 inch long) and the blue
whale, which can weigh up to 200 tons? Why else would God create fluid water
and dense rock, colors from the deepest magenta to the palest peach, and voices
that range from the trill of birds to the croaking of toads?
Somehow, humans came to adopt a much narrower vision. As architect
and suffragist Florence Luscomb (1887-1985) noted, “The tragedy in the lives of
most of us is that we go through life walking down a high-walled lane with
people of our own kind, the same economic situation, the same national
background and education and religious outlook. And beyond those walls, all
humanity lies, unknown and unseen, and untouched by our restricted and
impoverished lives.”
When we create, something of ourselves lives within our
song, our painting, our poem, and our children, and the same is true of God the
Creator. Thus, when we choose to avoid people who are different from us in
race, religion, culture, country of origin, sexual orientation, economic
standing, and level of education, for example, we are cutting ourselves off
from different aspects of God that are expressed in everything that has being. God
offers us richness and the joy of discovery, whereas we often choose constriction
and fear of that which is unfamiliar.
We can choose to be seekers of God in all that has being by
rekindling our holy curiosity: What does that food taste like? Will that plant
grow in my yard? What was it like to grow up in Syria? Why do Muslims fast from
sunrise to sundown during Ramadan?
We’ve been given a world created by a very imaginative God.
The height of gratitude is to venture beyond our well-trod, high-walled lane to
explore and delight in all aspects of creation with our God, who wants to be
seen and known.
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