Maroon Bluebonnets

I’ve been in awe of the Bluebonnets this year! The state’s official flower that seems to carpet many of the fields across Texas are simply stunning!  But there’s something funny going on right now at the Texas Longhorn’s campus.  The Bluebonnets are coming up maroon, only near the University Tower as well as the nearby Capitol building.   Could this be a prank from the maroon team down the road?
Many believe that these maroon bluebonnets have been genetically modified to become this unique color.  How can Texas bluebonnets be maroon?  They don’t fit….at all.  But, I do have to admit, it’s a pretty good joke if that is indeed, what it is.

Sometimes,we look at ourselves like a maroon bluebonnet in a field of bluebonnets.  We don’t fit the mold.  We’re not the same.  We’re different than the rest.  Different backgrounds. Different economic
status.   Different marital status.  Different faith.  Different lifestyle.  Different family. Whatever the reason why, deep down, we have this feeling of “not fitting in.”

I know that I struggled with “fitting in” at various seasons of my life.  I particularly remember working in a community that was predominately young married families and I was single.  I felt like that maroon bluebonnet amongst the rest.  I have a feeling that lots of us struggle with the same thing.  Yet, I am convinced that God delights in our differences, because He made us each unique, beautiful, and image of Himself, Imago Dei.

I’m not sure that Jesus Christ would have fit in the world He lived in.  He knew He was different, for He was the Son of God.  In fact, the Bible tells us in Isaiah 53: 2-3 “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.  He had not beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.”

Jesus was God, existing as God and came to this earth in the form of a man.  He didn’t fit the mold.   In fact, Jesus was perfect!  He never sinned.  Far cry from us humans. There was nothing really beautiful or cool about him that others would be attracted too.  He was treated horribly by others.  Yet, He was the Son of God.  Jesus’ death on the cross satisfied God’s requirement.  By living a perfect life and dying on our behalf, Jesus paid the price of our sins in full and conquered death.  Do you know this Jesus?

If Jesus lived a different type of life on this earth, I want that kind of life.  He stood out because He portrayed a beautiful life. A life of compassion, kindness, gentleness, humility, patience, hope peace, kindness, joy, self-control, generosity, justice, and more.  I’ve come to believe that different is good.  Especially when our differences make us look and act more like Christ.  Happy Easter!

Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain for the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.