Celebrating Differences

This story is about a little boy named Peter who thought that God saw him differently.

Peter was the younger child in his family. Growing up Peter felt he was very different than his older brother Paul. In fact, he looked nothing likes his brother or his parents. Whenever they were out in public people would always stare at Peter. His skin was way lighter and his hair was straighter. He was definitely the odd one out.

Peter decided he needed to speak to someone. He got up early the next morning ready to talk to God.

Dear God, Why did you make me so different? He asked. He waited for God to reply but he got no response. He felt maybe he was too different to pray to God. But that did not stop him. Peter decided to try again.

Dear God, Are you not listening, why am I so different?

Again, he got no reply, but in his heart Peter hoped that God was listening.

At school Peter would usually sit alone. He felt that if he sat alone the other children would not notice how different he was. Later that day, a new girl called Rebecca came over to Peter’s table; she had been staring at him all morning. She wanted to be his friend.

“Hi my name is Rebecca, What is your name?”

“Peter”, he said, with a smile on his face.

“Can I be your friend?” Rebecca asked.

“Are you sure?”  Asked Peter. “We are very different”, he said.

“We are?” Rebecca had no idea what Peter meant. She thought they were all the same; to her they were all a children of God.

“Well my skin is way lighter than yours and my hair is straighter than yours.”

Rebecca giggled, she now saw how very different they looked, but when she first saw Peter she knew she wanted to be his friend because, he always looked happy although he was always alone.

When Peter got home that day he went to talk to God. This time he did not ask God why he made him so different, instead he thanked God for sending him a friend like Rebecca, who saw beauty in his difference.  

By Nikita Hunte ©

Moral of the story

Sometimes in life we may be shorter than our friends, louder than our friends, some of us may be darker or lighter, some of us may be unable to see or hear or walk or talk, but within each of us there is beauty that some other person will always see, once we allow them to. All we need to do is to love being different. We need to love ourselves for how we are, not how we think we should be.