Whether you like it or not, everyone in this world is different. We all have different hair and eye colors, different personalities, different heights and weights. But we also have different likes and dislikes, different passions, different dreams, and different fears. Every single person that has ever lived is fundamentally unique — even identical twins.

Now, that shouldn’t be something we’re afraid of or something we try to ignore, but oftentimes that’s exactly what we do.

We’re bullied at school for our blonde hair, so we dye it black. Someone on our sports team makes fun of us for being short, so we wear different shoes to make us taller. Our friends tease people who want to stay in their hometown for college, so we convince ourselves to go to a college halfway across the country.

Almost everyone in this world is afraid of being different, and in one sense that’s a natural impulse. Since we naturally seek approval (usually from others around us), we want to be as similar to them as possible. But is that really bringing us fulfillment? Is it making the world a better place?

When I was in 1^st or 2^nd grade, I read this book by Peter Spier called People. It’s a pretty short kid’s book, but it talks about our differences in such a beautiful, clear way that’s accessible to both children and adults. Here’s some of my favorite excerpts from People:

Our natural instinct is to shy away from diversity or uniqueness, but it’s really a beautiful reflection of God! One person’s attention to detail and rules reflects God’s providence, sovereignty, and justice where another person’s loving, merciful nature points back to God’s unconditional love and grace.

And being our unique selves not only reflects God’s attributes, but it’s actually how God wants the world to function — especially in the church.

“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.” — 1 Corinthians 12:4-5

“But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’; nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.” — 1 Corinthians 12:20-22

Imagine if your body was made up of all shins, or all wrists. Each part of a body like that would just get in each other’s way and ultimately stop working properly – not to mention how weird something like that would look.

That same principle applies to the church.

“If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,’ is it therefore not of the body?… If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? Of the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleases. And if they were all one member, where would the body be?” — 1 Corinthians 12:15-19

Everyone’s unique backgrounds, struggles, pain, lessons, styles, and convictions are necessary for the beauty and health of the church. So don’t hide or be ashamed of your differences – your unique qualities reflect our Creator and make the world more beautiful.

Peter Spier said it best at the end of People:

“Six billion human beings… young and old, sick and well, happy and unhappy, kind and unkind, strong and weak. People everywhere. And all different.

It is very strange: Some people even hate others because they are unlike themselves. Because they are different. They forget that they too would seem different if they could only see themselves through other people’s eyes.

But imagine how dreadfully dull this world of ours would be if everybody looked, thought, ate, dressed, and acted the same!

Now, isn’t it wonderful that each and every one of us is unlike any other?”