October 12, 2025 Devo

As the psalmist is extolling God’s power and all He has done in Psalm 104, he points out something that God obviously enjoys. Variety. Just look around. God created the elephant and the ant. He made the whale and the shrimp. He formed the eagle and the bat. He made all kinds of forms and all kinds of things. I have this image of God calling together the angels as He made the different animals and saying, “Watch this!” I imagine the angels howling with delight as God stretched out the long neck of the giraffe. “Look at that! Look at that!” they would shout. Endless variety. God WANTED variety. In fact, if you look at how the whole animal kingdom and ecosystem works, the world NEEDED variety. And it’s the same with people.
If you’ve ever been a part of a group who have done personality testing, you discover we’re all wired differently. Some of us are outgoing, and some of us are more reserved. Some of us are “head” people, and others of us are more “heart.” Some of us need details, information, and structure. Others of us tend to thrive in chaos. Some of us take a L O N G time to make decisions. Others of us tend to make decisions quite quickly. But sometimes in all of this, we miss something that is very important. We NEED the variety.
We need people who are different from us. There is no “right” or “wrong” about how we’re wired. We’re just a product of God’s wonderful creativity. In His divine wisdom and humor, He made us need one another! The outgoing need the introverted. The big-picture people need the detailed people. We heart people need you head people. We don’t LIKE you, but we NEED you! God designed it that way. And yes, I think that fact gave the angels a good laugh as well!
We need that spouse who is quite different from us. We need those friends who make us see things and think about things quite differently. We need those coworkers who approach a project from a completely different angle. We need those board members who have a radically different perspective from us.
Now let this blow your mind. God gave us those people as a GIFT! They make up for our blind spots. They give us a wider and richer view of life. They COMPLETE us. Not to mention the fact that they keep us on our toes! So take a moment today to thank God for those people whom we can’t stand sometimes. Thank Him for those people who frustrate us, annoy us, and leave us shaking our heads in disbelief. Thank Him that in His wisdom of creation, He knew that no ONE of us could encompass all that He wanted to impart. So He created us with wondrous variety. And know today, however you are made, that somewhere there is someone whose life is better because of the unique and perfect way God made YOU. That’s God’s Word for today.