Different by Barry Hughes

Each day my walking route takes me through our neighborhood park. It is a lovely place, and in previous years would be bustling with people and activities from daylight until well into the night. This spring, there are no soccer games. The playground equipment is eerily quiet. The swings aren’t swinging. The slides aren’t sliding. The baseball diamond is perfectly groomed and sits lonely and unused in the sun. The life of the park is so different.

And yet, it is still a beautiful place. Each day I see the guy who sits in a pavilion with both phone and computer plugged in and hard at work. I often see a man who, with much effort, walks the sidewalks with his crutch, determined to continue rehab from a stroke. I wave at the same young couples who are pushing strollers and herding kids on bikes and scooters. I see folk both older and younger than myself, all making eye contact and anxious to smile and wave; to make this “different” as pleasant as possible.

“Different” is, well, different. And these days this little patch of flowers in the park proclaims how beautiful “different” can be. I look forward to pausing at this spot every day. In a beautiful sea of blues and purples and greens, it is the random red flower that catches my eye. I find it interesting that, even among this pure beauty, it is the “different” that seems to speak to me, to call to me. If asked to describe this spot, I’d probably say it is a bed of red flowers!

God seems to be all about different. We are called to live a different life. We are called to partner with God to create a different world. We are called to embrace a different value system. We are called to embrace the “different” in creation and in each other.

The scriptures tell us that we are not to “conform to this world” but to be “transformed”. We are called to be different.

How might I be different today? How might I make the world different today? How might I make the life of one other person different today? These are questions worth some thought.

I’m going to try be among the red flowers today. What about you?

Peace.