Red or yellow, black or white... they are precious in His sight!

Tonight I got to do one of my favorite things in our town. Go to the local lake and listen to an ourdoor concert. The weather was perfect, the music was good and the company was great (even though I went alone).

What made me love this group of people I didn't know? Let me give a brief backstory. I live in a medium-size town in central MN. It's a town that when I moved here from the capital, people would substitute the word "white" for  the "Saint" part of the city name. Don't get my wrong, I love this city and have lived here for more than 20 years now, but I always missed the diversity of the big city. But lately, our little town is getting more diverse and this one lake seems to draw in the many new cultures that are beginning to reshape this town. And it just brings me joy.

So as I walked with my little dog around the lake (7 times!), here are some of the sights and people I saw that made me smile.

• A young latino couple pulling their little boy in a wagon saying "Perro, perro"
• College students wake boarding on the lake in matching life vests
• Several elderly couples walking hand-in-hand
• Several gay couples walking hand-in-hand
• A guy in a wheelchair chasing kids on scooters
• Beautiful Somalian women with their flowing burqas
• A large group of black people laughing and talking loud enjoying each other's company
• A woman walking around breast feeding her baby
• Fit young men running around the gaggles of people, getting in their daily jog
• A homeless man laying on a ratty blanket under a tree with all of his belongings in the even rattier backpack next to him
• A group of four teens, smoking cigarettes and making funny voices as they talk and laughing uproarishly at each voice
• Groups of middle-aged white women power walking around the lake (yes, that would include myself)

I thought to myself, God loves all these people the same. He doesn't love one of them any more than the other. What a wonderful world it would be if we could do the same.