Day 31 - Different

There's a row of detached houses which back on to the tram line into Nottingham from Clifton South park and ride between the Ruddington Lane and Compton Acres stops.

I see them each time I take the tram from the Park and Ride to the office. They fascinate me. The houses look like perhaps they were built in the 1950s or 60s but over the years they have been extended up and out. Each addition to the houses is different - meaning that houses that started off uniform ("copy and paste" to use the modern vernacular) now look totally different from one another. Over the years they have clearly been adapted to the wishes and requirements of the families who have lived there.

When God created human beings, it would have been easy to have gone for a "copy and paste" model but instead we are all unique, from our appearance to our personalities to even our fingerprints! We are each one of us special and made in God’s image. God who created all of the wonders of nature – the millions of different species of creatures and types of flora and fauna, the variety of sea creatures who live so deep in the ocean that people don’t see them and yet they are all different.

Let's pray for that difference today.

Thank you, Lord, for the variety we see all around us.

For the uniqueness of each person ...

each plant ...

each animal ...

each landscape ...

each experience ...

each feeling ...

There is so much variety it is difficult to know where to start and so we bring you our prayers for variety and difference today.

We give thanks for all the difference we see, encounter and enjoy. Make us a truly appreciative people who want to really see all the difference around us. Help us to appreciate the variety in the world you have created and never give up looking for more. May we treasure that difference and work together to protect it.

Lord, when we are faced with differences that we find challenging, help us to recognise the things that unite us, more than the things that make us different. As we pray for those we know and those we don’t, guide us to ways of understanding that difference and working together to ensure a better future for us all.

Help us to be part of the solution and to celebrate all the variety that you have created, both today and every day!

In Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen

Catherine Booton