A child randomly chooses a crayon from his Crayola box, and begins coloring a picture in his coloring book. It may be a picture of a fireman, a teacher, a soldier, a mommy or a daddy; it doesn't matter. Nor does it matter if he uses a red crayon or a green crayon to color the entire person. The child will be pleased regardless of the color, and his parents will praise him for doing a good job.
God decided before he created us what color we would be. He made some of us white, some of us dark skinned and the rest various shades in between. God knew what color would be best for us, just as he knew the best height, the perfect gender and all of the other physical characteristics he gave us. God knew exactly the person he wanted us to be. But he looked deeper than the color of our skin, our eyes, our hair or any of the physical traits that identifies us. He looked far inside of us, all the way into our souls, and he saw the real person that he created. He said, “This is good!”
God’s love for us is not determined by any of our physical characteristics. He loves us all the same. He loves a fat person just as much as he loves a skinny person, the poor as much as the rich, the black as much as the white. As we age, becoming more forgetful, less strong, more stooped, more wrinkled, and slower, God loves us the same as he did when we were young and more physically appealing. Unfortunately, we sometimes use a different criterion to judge each other. Today appearance is given too much importance in determining the worth of a person. Someone will decide, ‘I don't think I like you because you are too red, too green, have too many toes or have some other characteristic that makes you different from me.’ Where did we get the idea that if a person is not like us we can’t love them? We didn't get that idea from God. We just don’t love each other with the love of of the Father. God said that we must love everyone, even our enemies. God made us to look the way we look, and we should praise him for that.
The Bible tells us that one day after we die God is going to give us another body, a perfect body. That is exciting! I wonder if we will look the same way we do on earth? Will it matter? Are we to assume that we will be the same color in heaven that we are here on earth? I wonder what color I will be in heaven. Maybe everyone will be the same color. I believe we will recognize each other in heaven, but I think we will know each other by more than just our physical appearance because all of us will be perfect in every way as God made the first man and woman. With these new bodies God gives us he may decide to randomly reach into his Crayola box of colors, pull out a color and color us with that crayon. And he will say, “I really like that!” My favorite color is blue. You know, I always thought blue would be a good color for me.
Psalm 139: 13-16
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