Beautifully Gathered

READ: GENESIS 1:26-27; JOHN 3:16-17; REVELATION 5:9; 7:9-10 Have you ever watched a florist arrange different flowers into a bouquet? It’s fascinating to see all those blooms come together into a unified composition. And a florist’s creativity points to our Creator God, who designed the stunning variety of flowers we find all around the world. God is glorified by the vast array of floral colors—for starters, just think about white and yellow daisies, red and pink dahlias, blue and purple hydrangeas, and snapdragons and petunias and lilies that come in all sorts of colors! And it’s not just the colors that are different. The petals are too. Lilies are shaped like trumpets, daisy petals look like teardrops, baby’s breath is like little stars, and gladiola petals are all ruffly. It’s amazing to think God made people like that too. Just as we see beautiful variations in flowers, we also see beautiful variations in humans. God made people with different colors of skin and hair and eyes. And their hair might be straight, wavy, or curly. Even body shapes are different—people come in all different heights and proportions. Our differences make our world more interesting than if we were all alike, and this diversity brings glory to God. When we see a variety of flowers gathered in a bouquet, we can remember how the Bible says God will gather believers from every nation, tribe, people group, and language to worship Jesus. How wonderful it will be to praise the Lord with believers from all over the world—joined together like a beautiful bouquet, unified by Jesus’s blood and forgiveness. When Jesus returns and establishes the new heavens and new earth, we will rejoice in our God together for eternity. But we don’t have to wait until then to appreciate people who are different from us. All people are created in God’s image and are deeply loved by Him. We can enjoy His beauty in the huge variety of people He has made, remembering that God created each of us in His own image, and Jesus died for us all. Together we reflect the beauty of His love and grace. • A. W. Smith • God created humans in His image—and no two humans are exactly alike! Can you think of a time when the differences of others helped you better understand God? How so? • How can looking ahead to the new heavens and new earth, when all Christians will worship Jesus together in harmony, give us hope to pursue that kind of fellowship here and now? …I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb [Jesus]. Revelation 7:9b (NLT)