Pieces of the mosaic
I can be a sucker for a good parade. I remember community celebrations when I was growing up and I would get excited for the parade. Even as an adult, there is so much joy shown as people gather to celebrate.
I love that a community can have pride in showing off its fire engines or the newest police cruiser. I love the community matriarch or patriarch sitting slightly uncomfortably on a convertible doing their best royal wave.
I love the candy; the mountain of tootsie rolls that end up in my pockets that then end up in the garbage because nobody needs that many tootsie rolls in their life.
One year, the church I served had an entry in the town’s fourth of July parade. We were celebrating our 150th anniversary and wanted to show off some of our good ol’ Norwegian heritage while also leaning into our identity as a church that is for our neighbors today. I won’t forget that parade as it was also my first fourth of July in that community.
I learned so much that day and was shown that our beautiful country isn’t so much a melting pot as it is a beautiful mosaic that, together, forms something rather remarkable.
As we marched down the street, we moved from the downtown corridor into a neighborhood where the music changed from classic rock to something else. The smell of burgers gave way to fajitas. We then moved into a block where the music changed again and the smell of injera and goat seasoned the air. Walking through each little neighborhood showed the incredible diversity of that town, a diversity that isn’t unique to that community, but marks so much of the landscape of this nation.
It was a diversity that I imagine was in God’s mind as the world was created, the kind of diversity described in Revelation 7 with people from every nation, tribe, people, and language all together.
I think what makes humanity so amazing is that none of us are the same and yet we come together to form something that more fully reflects the image of God than any pocket of people can on their own.
As you celebrate the fourth this year, I hope you will look around at the amazing reflections of God in our communities here. On our own, we can all reflect an element of who God is and who God calls us to be. Together, however, we can more fully reflect the glory of God.
We aren’t a melting pot, we are a mosaic that when assembled, reveals the beauty and creativity of our God. That, I think, is something we can all give thanks for.
