An elementary school art teacher provided her students with a large sheet of art paper and several brand-new boxes of sharp, unpeeled crayons in a multitude of colors. She instructed the students to share the crayons and to work together to create a colorful mural to hang in the hallway outside the classroom. She thought other students might be inspired to take art if they saw demonstrations of her class’s work.
The students eagerly opened the boxes of crayons and began working on their projects. One child grabbed the red crayon, held it up, and announced, “This is the best color in the entire crayon box. If you don’t like red, you don’t know anything about colors or art.” Some students ignored him, but others followed suit and began fighting for their own favorite color. One child grabbed the yellow crayon and declared, “Yellow is the best color. It’s the color of the sun and light. We can’t see anything if we don’t have light, so yellow is the best. We don’t need any of these other dumb colors.”
Some students tried to ignore the fighting and keep working together, but it was difficult amid all the chaos. It didn’t take long before the class was divided. The kids who liked red gathered in one corner of the room, and the kids who thought yellow should be the only color sequestered themselves in another corner. The yellow group surrounded themselves with chairs so other students couldn’t reach them or take their yellow crayons. One little girl said the teacher hated those who didn’t use blue and tried to break all the other crayons to force everyone to use only blue crayons. The blue group then pretended the other students didn’t exist. The situation quickly devolved into name-calling, tears, and a few pushes and shoves. The teacher desperately tried to regain control of her classroom, and she ended up calling in the principal and the parents.
We can look at this fictional classroom and acknowledge the immaturity and ignorance of children who think everyone should have the same favorite color and fight with those who like a different color. We might be saddened that these art students’ vision is so narrow that they can’t see the need for any other color apart from their favorite. We might sympathize with the frustrated teacher who failed in her attempt to teach her class about the beauty of art and working together in unity.
The psalmist beautifully describes unity in Psalm 133:
How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!
It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard
Running down on Aaron's beard, down on the collar of his robe.
It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.
Why is the body of Christ so divided? Why do some camps still like to sit in their little fenced-off corner of the art room, rolling their eyes and spewing hatred at the “ignorance” of those who are not like them? Why can’t we acknowledge each other’s differences and celebrate the beauty of the unified body of Christ together? Unity does not require uniformity. A crayon box filled with red crayons is not more beautiful, more useful, or more unified than a box filled with a variety of colors. It’s just more boring.
We do not all have the same learning styles or personalities; the same favorite Bible verse, song, or method of praying; the same experiences, perspectives, or preferences; or the same way of interpreting Scripture. And yet, we tend to want everyone else to look like us, learn like us, think like us, sing like us, and experience like us. Why should every church body look the same when the individual members do not look the same? Look at the great variety in God’s creation. Why do we insist that our crayon boxes all contain the same color? Each of us is a beautiful crayon, lovingly made by the Creator, and we are gifted and tasked with blending our colors with others to create a wonderful picture of praise to the Creator.
In this art room scenario, I imagine the apostle Paul saying, ‘If the whole crayon box were a red crayon, where would the blue crayon to color the sky be? If the whole crayon box were a blue crayon, where would the yellow crayon to color the sun be? But in fact, the Creator has placed the colors in the crayon box, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.’ (1 Cor 12:17- 18, Art Class Version).
Perhaps the saddest aspect of the sharp divisions in the church is the loss experienced by those on the outside. Like those who did not have the opportunity to see a beautiful mural outside the art classroom, many people have witnessed ugly, monochromatic scrawling and the sound of hatred and fighting. They miss out on the opportunity to see works of art and the joy of being invited to join the art class. Or, sadder still —-maybe they were invited to be a part of the art class but declined the invitation because they didn’t want to join all the fighting coming from the art students who professed to love art and to love the Creator.
Let us determine to find unity by being open, humble, and intentional, and by relying on the power, love, and healing of God.