Beautiful Diversity
I’ve so often taken for granted how expansive God is. Within the past 24 hours I’ve traveled up from Dallas, TX to Boston, MA, to Woodstock VT. I’ve ridden in cars with people who have lived in Prague, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and so many other places across the globe/U.S. and one theme was prevalent through it all: God's providence. From the boats landing on the New England ports, the trees' reliance on the rain for sustenance, and the Uber driver scrounging around for a gas station after a three hour pilgrimage from his hometown, God was caring for His divinely made creation in every second of it. Living in the same city, with the same people, in the same culture, I had forgotten that God wasn’t just the God of my life, but the God of the whole world.
In the book of Job, we get a glimpse of just how grandiose God and His work is. Having the privilege of hearing of how someone became the person they are through the different heartbreaks, triumphs, and everything in between is humbling to say the least. I knew that God worked wonders, but hearing about them just made them much more real. To know that God hears the cries of a hurting mother, consoles the heart of a fleeing refugee, and mends the soul of a heart shattered by the actions of others who caused deep betrayal. God is with us in it all.
Near the end of the book, God rhetorically asked Job who laid the foundations of the earth, who set the seas in their place, who cast the stars in their orbit, who made the creature of the sea, and so forth. Yet within this we can find that our blessed assurance doesn’t stem from anything we can produce or manufacture, but in a God who created the whole cosmos and wonderfully cares for the things He makes.
Making connections with those with varying ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, and nationalities binds our hearts closer to what the kingdom will one day bring in the coming of the new heaven and the new earth. That the kingdom of God isn’t just a collaboration of one set of people, but of the whole world that uniquely images God. Oh the glory it will be when I get to look my brothers and sisters in the eyes, look back at our past, and know that we’ve been eternally knit together by one Spirit, One Lord, and One Father who has perfectly loved us for all of eternity for the good of others and to the glory of Himself.
God bless.