May 4, 2018 Friday

February 21  Genesis 11:9, Acts 17:26 Did God color me?

Life is not in the skin, but in the blood!

“That is why it was called Babel— because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:9 NIV)

“From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.” (Acts 17:26 NIV)

We live in a world of amazing diversity.  Cat brings thousands of pictures and colors to our minds.  The same can be said for dogs, chickens, and many other animals.  Why should we be surprised that people are so different? 

The history of humanity has often pitted people of different nations against one another.  This has more lately been true of races.  Are non-whites less than?  In our scripture we are told that all of humanity is of “one blood” or of “one man”.  Every person born on earth came from one set of parents.  Adam and Eve were the father and mother of all of humanity.  So indeed we are one family, one blood.   

Both the Eugenics (make a purer humanity through controlled breeding) and Nazi movements accepted evolution and cast aside creation and the teaching of one blood.  To be a racist is to cast aside the belief God created us all from Adam and Eve.  It is to accept we are an accident of nature formed by death and destruction over aeons of time.  So what is a little more destruction to make things better?  This is seen in the attempt to wipe out Indian tribes in America, Aboriginal tribes in Australia and the THEM in many different places.

Why are there differences in human beings?  After the fall humanity came together in an early Eugenics movement.  They attempted to reach God and elevate humanity through a tower.  God saw the terrible destructiveness to come from this and dispersed humanity and set up the distinct groups and later nations and nationalities. 

Remember the dispersion and separation of people was to protect us from ourselves, and is a sign of God’s protection and love!  It is not a sign of superiority or degradation.

We are told that not only did God disperse us, but also God put us in “the exact places where we should live.”  So are we to blame someone because God placed him or her there?

It might surprise you to know Adam and Eve were probably not white.  They were probably more middle tone like the people of the Middle East.  From them would come darker and lighter people based upon where they would live and the conditions they faced.  God colored us because we all really have one color of melanin and the amount of melanin we have determines the darkness of our skin.   But our difference, like the rainbow, is God’s promise that He will go to tremendous lengths to spare us rather than destroy us, or even let us destroy ourselves!

The only “color” that destroys is the darkness of our heart!  A dark heart is our doing and our choice and is not a sign of degradation but of the fall of humanity!

            What a weary day. I struggled today but still we had our devotion and I read in 1Chronicles.  God is so good and I continue to enjoy the birds at the feeder.