Race is sacred

I am not color blind. I see people and, when I see them, I see that many of them are a different color than me. And that brings glory to God because race is sacred. Now, God has created everything and everyone for a purpose. There is not something, specific, in the Bible that speaks to why God created different races, but we do receive some hints as to why. In the book of Romans, chapter 1 verse 20, it states that  "...since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made...". This leads me to think that the creation of different races speaks, in part, to a specific aspect of his divine nature: his diversity. 

Even though I worship one God, he is made up of three distinct persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God, himself, is diverse and in order for man to reflect his image (Genesis 1:27) it needed to be diverse. Now, of course, we are all individuals and that is a diversity in an of itself. Being created male and female furthers that aspect of his divine nature. Yet, I cannot ignore the fact that the races he has created gives me a altogether different picture of my brothers and sisters and this challenges me to not misuse the purpose for which race was created. When I violate the purpose of race, when I use someone's race in a way that violates God's purpose for creating it, I do evil.

But how can we misuse the purpose of race? I mean, isn't that just like misusing the purpose of the color green? Not exactly. Man is the pinnacle of God's creative act, the color green...not so much. Man holds a special place in the universe. I find that even though God is diverse, he moves in unity within himself. He exists in perfect communal harmony. This is the model and picture of how I am to react to, people of different races. If I am to reflect God's image (and fulfill my purpose) I am to live with people of different races in perfect community. I am to embrace the diversity (I am not Black, Latino, Asian, etc.) and recognize the commonness of our humanity just like God embraces his diversity (the Father is not the Son nor is the Son the Father or Spirit) and fully comprehends his divinity and oneness right alongside it. This diversity that I see is the same God sees in himself and he is the model for how I am to embrace it an reflect his image as I do.

So how can I misuse the purpose of race? Well, for one, I can single people that are a different color than me out for suspicion. I don't see the Father, Son, and Spirit doing that. I can also ignore "them" and just concentrate on "us" making sure that my life is as comfortable and pain free as possible. The image of God is something quite different as he ran to the mess of my sin, not from it, and did something about it. I can view people of different races as deficient and inferior. Even though the Bible says that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, thus obeying them, I see no hint of an ascription of any type of inferiority to him. In fact, I see quite the opposite (John 16:7).

I see too many times when I and others misuse the purpose of race violating both my purpose and its purpose. That grieves God. His sacred race, his divine nature that he wants to show me, is trampled as a result and I become less than what he intended for me to become. I do evil. May God help us to see our diversity as he sees his. May we react to our sacred differences the way he reacts to his. As we look towards embracing our God-given purpose may we recognize our common humanity, and our great God's diversity, no matter how different we are from each other.