Diversity United

Ephesians 4:11-16

He makes the whole body fit together perfectly . . . so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. (Ephesians 4:16)

NOT LONG AGO IN MADABA, JORDAN, not far from where Moses died, a museum invited visitors to help create a mosaic of at least two million pieces. Each visitor would paint a ceramic fragment, and the museum artisans placed it appropriately into an enormous image of the King’s Highway. No two fragments were alike, but each one served the larger purpose of the image. Two million pieces created a beautiful, coherent whole.

What if your life is like that—one piece in an enormous mosaic of God? He is infinite, of course; many more than two million pieces would be necessary, and the range of colors would have to be dazzling. But in light of Creation and our being made in God’s image, the idea of stunning diversity serving one coherent whole makes sense. All of God’s creatures, each one different, unite to form a beautiful picture of their Creator.

Many people resist such an image, insisting that unity implies uniformity and that every piece should be the same size, shape, and color. But God did not create such a boring picture, and any attempt to refine his work severely misreads his purposes. His people vary in age, race, gender, nationality, language, background, and experience. Our life stories emphasize various aspects of his nature—we all have unique perspectives and preferences; we all are given different gifts and contexts in which to exercise them; and our doctrines emphasize the importance of different truths, even when they serve a coherent whole. We belong to the same Lord and must fit his image, but within that unity, our differences are essential.

Embrace your uniqueness. While many Christians ask God to bless their corner of Christianity and praise their own distinctives, spend your time blessing others—and yourself—as important and necessary expressions of God’s nature. You can reflect God in a way no one else can, and if you don’t fulfill your purpose, no one else will. Learn to see yourself as a vital expression of who God is. Then with all your heart, live it out for the world to see.

{Lord, I want to conform to your image, but you have created me to conform as no one else does. Let the world see what Jesus looks like uniquely in me. Amen.