A while back I saw a t-shirt with this delightful observation on the back: “Heaven is where the police are British, where the chefs are Italian, where the mechanics are German, where the lovers are French and it I all organized by the Swiss. Hell is where the police are German, where the chefs are British, where the mechanics are French, where the lovers are Swiss and it is all organized by the Italians.”
I suspect most of us would agree and with a smile on our face. But there would be those who would say the T-shirt was stereotyping people. Well, of course! But I would assert that the observation is more typical than stereo. Italian cuisine over British? No contest. Swiss vs. Italian governing? No contest. Italy has averaged two parliaments a year since WWII. Rather the point of the observation is that we are all different, that it takes all kinds and types of people to make up this world, this country, this church of ours. But there are those who just don’t get it.
I love the Olympics. Athletes from all over the world come together to test their skills against one another. Fierce but friendly competition because each knows the work it took to just get to the Games let alone winning a medal. I always root for the athletes from the USA but truly enjoy the side-stories of other athletes from around the world and the work and hardships they went through to make it to the Games. Every athlete deserves a medal just for making it that far.
Some would say that the tongue-in-cheek T-shirt philosophy or that behind the Olympic Games is all hokum, a pipe dream, even wrong. They would say that those of us who believe we are all equal even though we are all different, of different types and cultures, that we just don’t get it. It is they who just don’t get it. It is precisely our diversity that makes this world, and especially this country of ours, such a wonderful place to live in, even with that which is not so wonderful – and there is a lot of that to be sure.
Diversity is what makes for growth. If we all looked, thought, believed alike, it would be the most boring world to live in. If that were the case, my guess is that there would be rebels who would somehow rise up to challenge our thinking, acting and believing. The truth is we have too many rebels or rebels who rise up for the wrong reason: they want everyone to be and think and believe and act as they do. And, sadly, they often use violent means to try to force and enforce their beliefs. They will never succeed in spite of their efforts. We are just too diverse as a people.
If blame is to be found why Italians, by and large, are better cooks than the British and the Swiss are better than governing that the Italians and Norwegians are better in Winter Olympics than Summer, then that blame rests entirely on God’s shoulders. God created us different. If God wanted us to be all alike, that is the way God would have created us. Those who think otherwise just don’t get it.
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