Last night as I was praying I thought about all of the people who have ever lived and wondered how many of us are there…and counting? Can you imagine? What immediately struck me was the diversity. We are each one of us so distinct, different, unique. We’ve lived in different cities, nations, times. We look different, we think differently, we behave differently.

It further dawned on me that is exactly what God wanted when He created the Universe and us.

God loves variety! He didn’t just create one tree, one flower, one type of bird, one type of cow, one type of human….how boring would that be and how constraining?

God wanted us to be different and we can see that in the various gifts and talents each person has. There are musicians but have you ever thought about how each musician writes music so unique though millions of songs have been written? Authors write new stories though millions have been written, and on and on.

God designs variety and He didn’t stop with humans. Think of the different races of humans. There is beauty and variety in skin tones, hair color and texture, color of eyes, shapes of every feature and faces that sometimes look just like a distant relative and yet uniquely their own; and as an artist I can attest that each individual face has features that are so beautifully perfect for that face.

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…verse 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. What I especially like in reading the excerpts in the creation portion of Genesis is what God said after each…that it was very good.

God so loves variety and He intended all that He created. Do we love variety? Do we look upon our fellow human beings and love the variety? Sometimes I wonder how He doesn’t get overwhelmed because I get overwhelmed just thinking about all of us!

All of this kind of flashed in my mind as I was praying last night. I couldn’t help but be in awe of God that he loves us so well and He loves the variety we bring. Do we? I pray we can open our hearts to love as God loves and stop hating each other because we are “different” whatever that means.

2 Corinthians 5:16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

A new creation has come the old is gone! I love to share God’s love for us. We can each of us be a part of His new creation when we open our hearts to His love and love each other. Love the variety because God does.

Open your heart to change. The only constant is change. Let God change your heart so you can embrace the changes He makes in us and each other. The God who created such variety is not static…be willing to let Him lead your heart to better understanding and appreciation of all the diversity He created and loves.