In Praise Of Our Differences

In Praise of Our Differences

One of the longest-running sitcoms in recent history featured six singles in their twenties and thirties who, apart from their personality quirks and ways of earning a living, were practically interchangeable in a huge melting pot of a city. They were all one race, all at one socioeconomic level, and all about relationships, all the time. Nothing bigger than themselves ever hit their radar. They were the center of their universe, and the show’s longevity proved that America loved to watch.

But television was once the land of aliens. My Favorite Martian moved in, and the neighborhood was never the same. The Beverly Hillbillies hit Los Angeles in their old jalopy, and delightful cultural confusion ensued. I Dream of Jeannie’s buttoned-up Major Nelson lived innocently (but precariously) with a real live magical genie found in a bottle on the beach. And Mr. Ed, the talking horse, lived in Wilbur Post’s garage. No same-same there.

In truth, we don’t all fit in. We shouldn’t. It’s so much more interesting when we don’t. John Piper said, “I am wired by nature to love the same toys that the world loves. I start to fit in. I start to love what others love. I start to call earth ‘home.’ . . . It is a terrible sickness.”

Those of us who follow Christ can take comfort in our alien status. Ours is a citizenship in an invisible Kingdom, and that citizenship binds us together. In Christ, I have family in England and Brazil and Zambia and India. My relatives live around the world, down the street, across tracks, and beyond borders. The more we mix it up here, now, the more at home we’ll feel when we finally arrive on our true homeland’s shore. Heaven will be delightfully diverse. God said so.

So here’s to neighbors of all kinds. And to the wonderful surprises our differences allow us to discover.

Everyone was there—all nations and tribes, all races and languages. And they were standing, dressed in white robes and waving palm branches, standing before the Throne and the Lamb and heartily singing: Salvation to our God on his Throne! Salvation to the Lamb!

Revelation 7:9-10, MSG