God of Rainbows

I have much more to tell you, but you can’t bear to hear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you into all truth. ~ John 16:12

From House Sparrows to Ostriches, homosexual behavior has been observed in a variety of bird species. In the entire natural world, courtship and breeding activities and behavior between partners of the same sex has been recorded in more than 500 species. There are also examples of transgender animals. The visual is striking in bird species where the male and female have different plumages. Recently, a bilateral gynandromorph Northern Cardinal visited a feeder in Pennsylvania. That’s just a fancy way of saying that it was half male, half female, its appearance split down the center. Not that we should be surprised by the audacious variety in nature. Hummingbirds are tiny, iridescent flying jewels. Nothing says “look at me” more than a peacock’s tail. And a Painted Bunting looks like God handed a box of crayons to a child and said, “have at it.”

Jesus clearly understood the human limitation for taking in truth. He made a point of telling his followers that Spirit would continue to reveal truth to them as they were able to digest it. Funny then, isn’t it, that Spirit appeared as a gentle dove at his baptism but descended in a mighty wind and tongues of fire at Pentecost. I suppose that if he had said that was what they should be looking for, the disciples may have done more than lock the door in hiding. Truth has a way of kicking in the door and breaking down walls. Truth also has a way of being right before our eyes all along even when we don’t recognize it.

Pride month may be a recent development, but really it is just about saying out loud a truth that was always present, everyone is made in the image of God. Just look around at the beauty and behavior of creation and it is surely obvious that God has been celebrating diversity since the beginning.

Prayer: God of rainbows, sparkle bomb us with beauty attacks until we celebrate diversity with you. Amen.