Pleasure in Diversity

 

One of the best aspects of walking through my neighborhood is being able to enjoy the number of trees. This never grows old to me. There are trees of numerous varieties, sizes and shapes. Some have been there long before the neighborhood was built in 1957. Others came with the houses. Still others are new, replacing ones lost with the passing of time.

As I walked on this particular street on this particular morning, I particularly enjoyed these three trees. They are of three different species and three different heights and three different shades of green. They are as different as they can be. Yet, when I passed and looked back, they seemed to blend into one tree. The distinctive nature of each was still evident and beautiful, but the commonality of being trees became more important than the differences. Together, they struck me as even more beautiful than each did on their own.

It is strange that we spend so much of our time with only those who look like us and think like us when the richness and beauty of the diverse human family surrounds us. Like the trees, we can be our distinctive selves and still be one with others in a larger sense. In spite of what we hear from those who benefit by promoting division, our strength and beauty come from joining our differences mutual respect and acceptance.

“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.”

From the story of creation to the birth of the Church, God has found pleasure in diversity. May we come to that same place as a human family and work and live together for the good of all.

Peace.