(This is a retelling of the story of the Tower of Babel, which is found in the Bible in Genesis 11:1-9)

Long ago, when the human race was young

And all the people spoke the same language,

The humans decided to build a city between two rivers where they could all live together,

With a tower to touch the clouds, so that they could reach for God.

God traveled among the people, looked around and listened:

They were all speaking the same language and acting in the same way,

Building this city between two rivers, with a tower to touch the clouds,

where they could live together and stay the same…

And God thought, “this is really boring!”

After all, the earth was filled with all kinds different of plants and flowers,

fish, birds, and animals in all sizes, shapes, and colors.

“With all this variety,” God mused, “Why should all people be the same?”

And so, before the humans could finish their tower in the city between the rivers,

God did a very special thing.

God took those bricks from that tower they were building, and scattered them over all the earth.

And in the scattering, God gave the humans a very special gift —

the humans became as interesting and colorful and unique and varied

as the rest of God’s good creation.

Now, with God’s gift, the humans became all different shapes and sizes and colors

And they began to speak a wonderous variety of languages!

God had gifted the humans with diversity.

The humans left the place between two rivers, and dispersed themselves abroad

to make new homes over all the earth, and they filled the world with a vast array

of cultures, customs, languages, traditions, and stories.

The humans went from focusing on building a city between two rivers,

with a tower that touched the clouds, trying to reach for God,

to filling God’s good creation with the gift of diversity.

And in that gift, they found that the God they thought was in the sky,

was really just scattered over all the earth and journeying among them all along.