Do Not Wish to Provide – Acts 17:26

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth (Acts 17:26).

Take a look at this picture (source: worldwidefeatures.com) and try to identify the race of these two adorable young girls:

Think you have it figured out? How about if I told you they are twins? Yep, twins! How cool is that? And it is actually not that uncommon. As a parent of both “black” and “white” children, the idea of identifying different races based upon skin tone has become ridiculous to me. And, as a Christian who knows that we have all descended from the same sets of great-great-grandparents, I am rather embarrassed to admit how slow I was to realize my ignorance. Even from a purely secular scientific standpoint, there is only one “human” race. It is really quite unfortunate that we as a society continue to cling to divide based upon these arbitrarily derived definitions. Sadly, many of these views of races were derived from and abused by people who wanted to declare they were a result of evolution.

Now, I do not have the foggiest idea who my biological paternal grandfather was. For all I know, he could have been any or even all of the so-called “races” that were listed on a government form I had to fill out this week: American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian, Black, African American, Native Hawaiian, other Pacific Islander, White Hispanic or Latino, or White non-Hispanic or Latino. When I look in the mirror, I am most definitely pretty pale, but many shades darker than my wife and many shades lighter than my youngest daughter. Unfortunately, simply “human” was not one of the race choices I was given.

Perhaps the greatest irony is that we, as a society, continue to claim we can identify the “race” of people by just looking at their skin tone, but supposedly can no longer judge gender by examining the plumbing. Huh?! Yet, God tells us quite clearly that “male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). So, I will continue to check the box marked “Do not wish to provide” while celebrating the many hues of both men and women God has so wonderfully created.