The Beauty of Variety

 

O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great. (Psalm 104:24-25 ESV).

 

It is not unusual for Mary to be scrolling through her phone and suddenly look up saying, “Look at this! This is the most beautiful bird I’ve ever seen!” I suppose somewhere along the way she “liked” an image of an exotic bird and the AI of our brave new world continues to post various pictures of these birds on her feed. However, they pop up, they are certainly a beauty to behold. Just one of those has been attached. It is a Mandarin Duck. While I have seen this bird in zoos, I’ve never observed it in its natural habitat. I have seen many others in some of my travels, all of them are amazing. This is true across the animal kingdom. The variety and diversity is always astonishing.

 

This vast diversity is a beautiful part of God’s creation, as our reading shows. In his wisdom God made so many different animals and plants that we haven’t been able to count them all. And in his wisdom God made many different cultures and people as well. This psalm uses poetry to tell about the powerful and beautiful way God made the world. It invites us to praise God for such diverse beauty and for creating the world in the best way possible.

 

Each of us brings our own type of beauty to the world. The temptation is to compare and denigrate those that that somehow don’t “measure up.” Take the common English Sparrow. It is relatively plain with a repertoire of just a single note. Yet it has been created by God with each detail uniquely calling us to recognize the great beauty of God’s diversity.

 

People are this way as well. We each have our differences. Often we shy away from recognizing there is designed beauty in every one of us. God has seen to that in the act of His creation. It is through this diversity that God displays his love for all his creation. This truth calls us to praise God for creating a world that is so beautiful and diverse. The next time you see different birds in your backyard, thank Him… praise Him!