“There are different gifts, but the same Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:4) You have to wonder. Why does the Creator make us all so different? Wouldn’t unity (His plan and prayer) be easier to acheive and maintain without so much built-in diversity? We are different in so many ways–gender, ethnicity, opinions, spiritual gifting, even language! “Those French,” quipped Steve Martin, “they have a different word for everything.” What possible purpose could God have to create such different people and then put us together in a church? Perhaps it is something we should expect from an infinitely creative mind. The God who imagined spiders and sperm whales never needs to repeat Himself. Perhaps, like the Tower of Babel story, our diversity is part judgement, part prevention from an easy and ungodly unity. Maybe it is God’s gentle/stubborn way to remind us that unity and rest are unattainable until we return to Him. Maybe it is His “obstacle course” to teach us to love.
