Opus 2025-417: The Attribute of Variety

Is variety an attribute of God?  My initial, and probably final, suspicion is no.  Variety would go directly opposed to the attribute of immutability.  And yet I wonder.

God created us in His image.  That’s established.  The Bible very clearly says so.  The big question has always been “What does that mean?”  As I think about how some people never laugh at my jokes and how some people never get the points I’m making in a discussion, I think about how we have different ways of looking at the world.  We have variety.

I’m not establishing a doctrine here.  I’m just speculating.  The fact that each and every one of us human beings is different could some way reflect on being created in the image of God.  God’s character does not change.  And yet as He doesn’t change, He responds differently to different people.  He shows variety in His relationships.  I have this deep feeling that His actions are consistent with his character and His values, but that isn’t always clear to us.  We don’t always see how that works.  The same way that we don’t understand each other means that we may never understand God.

That is satisfactory.  As I’ve said, another context, if we could understand Him, He would not be God.

So rejoice in your individuality.  It’s probably a good thing that you can’t find anybody who agrees with you.  That may be one reason why God tells us to love and doesn’t tell us to make other people love us.  It’s probably why we are called to serve and not to look for servants.  That’s why we are admonished to listen instead of talking.

I would guess I would have to say that variety is an attribute of humanity and just a distant shadow of the variety that is present in the character of God.

homo unius libri