Skip to main content

Enriched by diversity

 

Last weekend I attended a fun fortieth birthday party with my daughter. It was fancy dress—come as something starting with the letter s (the birthday girl was Sammy). My daughter went as sushi and I went as soy sauce! We were amazed at the variety of costumes. Some costumes were simple—one of our friends went as ‘shiny’ wearing a shiny hat, shiny beads and bracelets. Others were very inventive. We had S.W.A.T. teams, sheriffs and secret service agents. We had spies. We had the Spice Girls, scarecrows and sponge bob. One extended family had dressed up as surgeons and scrub nurses including the toddlers and baby. Sammy’s enterprising husband came as spaghetti although his noodles kept knocking people’s hats off! We also had a Salvation Army soldier. So with approximately seventy people participating there was quite an assortment of costumes. Everyone was dressed differently but were gathered for a common purpose; to celebrate the birthday of a friend.

I thought about our church. We have different ethnicities, different cultures, different socio-economic groups and different ages attend. We dress differently, we talk differently, we have different hobbies and interests as well as different jobs and different talents but we gather with a common purpose—to worship God. As I look around, I see a rich tapestry of believers who make church something beautiful. Who make worship deep and meaningful. The Christian community spreads across the whole world and it is such a blessing to belong to a worldwide diverse family.

Just as Sammy was the reason we gathered last weekend, God is the reason we belong to this beautiful faith community. He not only put us in blood kin family units, but he put us in one huge family through the blood of Jesus. How humbling is that thought, how amazing is His creation and how great is our God.

My prayer for you this week is that you will have joy. God bless you.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time to relax

  Another update on the ongoing saga of the renovations. The new kitchen has now been pushed out until September with no date given. The flooring has now been pushed out until the 19 September and wallpapering sometime after that. We have to wait for the wallpapering before we install the new heat pump and the range-hood. The new lounge suite will take three to four months to be ready in the colour we want. Family are coming for our 140 th church celebrations the second week in October. I’m praying that the heat pump is up! There will literally be no chairs for them to sit on. Hopefully the new kitchen will at least be installed so I can unpack all the boxes that are currently stored in the spare bedrooms otherwise I have no place for them to sleep. I am laughing at the thought of sleeping bags in the lounge around the piano which is currently right in the middle where we moved it to allow painters to get around it. But today, I had a lovely relaxing morning. My friend is stil...
Post a Comment
Read more

Planting Seeds

  Carrying on from last week, I was wondering how I am sowing seeds. I realised that we can all sow seeds everywhere we go. I don’t go out that often actually, I don’t belong to any secular groups but I can still be responsive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Under his leading I made a determined effort to get to know the names of all the staff at my two favourite cafés that I visit at least weekly. I ask about their families; I support where I can. My friends and I find opportunities to give them all a little gift of chocolate and a card with a verse of scripture written on it. They all know we are Christians. I guess that might be called planting seeds. I converse with the supermarket checkout operators just to have a chance to bring a blessing to them. Some of them now know I am a Christian. I can easily bring God into conversations with unsaved family members, neighbours and strangers I stop and talk to in the park—with the leading of the Holy Spirit. I do not adopt a heavy...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Importance of Unity

  What do you do when you think the Pastor or Senior Leadership Team have got it wrong! A friend was recently talking about a decision made by our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) including the Pastor. We are a small church community, so decisions affect every member there. However, unless directly involved in a programme or initiative the SLT do not know how a decision they make might impact on the on-the-ground day-to-day running of that programme or initiative. It is important to talk to those involved to get their perspective and even in a small church this might not necessarily happen. Having said that, our SLT are generally very good at consulting. So, what do you do if you think it’s an unwise decision? This will of course depend on size of the church, whether the Pastor is a good listener and is prepared to talk about it and I’m sure, many other factors. My perspective is that I do not want to be talking about the Pastor behind his back. I do not want to gossip about him ...
Post a Comment
Read more