God Loves Variety - Martin Wiles

Series: Nature Lessons About God

O Lord, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures. Psalm 104:25 NLT

Variety is the spice of life. And God must think so.

My brother and I made our way to a popular spring hiking trail just outside of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. As we meandered along the trail, we encountered a plethora of wildflower varieties. Some lay low to the ground, making the forest floor appear as if it had a layer of snow. Others reared higher. Some bloomed green, making them difficult to see. We happened upon a group of older people led by a guide who knew the various types of wildflowers, so we stayed close and listened.

On another occasion, my wife and I, along with another couple, found ourselves on the top of a mountain having lunch at a high-elevation picnic grounds. As we ate, squirrels scampered from tree to tree and ran along the ground, hoping picnickers would drop a few morsels. But these weren’t the squirrels we saw back home. I took a picture, loaded it into an app on my phone that identifies creatures, and discovered it was a red squirrel. Although they act somewhat like a gray squirrel, they look more like a chipmunk.

And the mountains always give us a glimpse of a different variety of birds. Birds I can’t identify by their sound or by their appearance.

Imagine if all the birds, other animals, and flowers looked identical. What a boring world this would be. Though he only lived in the Middle East his entire life, the psalmist noticed the variety of wildlife God had created and marveled.

The psalmist said God was a God of wisdom. And God is a creative genius. Some choose to credit evolution for the world’s variety of plant and animal life, but I choose to attribute them to an all-wise God who is bigger than any process, random or guided.

God also showed His wisdom by conceiving the plan of salvation. Who would have thought about letting salvation be purchased through His own Son? Why not let the variety of people He created work for their salvation … their forgiveness? Because we could never have earned it.

Although God loves variety, He didn’t create a variety of ways to gain salvation. Only one. By believing His Son paid for our sins and by accepting Him as our Savior. No variety of ways exist to Him. Just one.

Look around and enjoy the variety God has created. Then come to Him in the only way He has provided.

Prayer: Father, we worship You as a God of variety and for the spice it brings into our lives.

Tweetable: Are you enjoying God's variety? 

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