There are so many creative auto insurance commercials out there in recent years. I think I could write an entire year-long devotional book on ideas they generate.

One of the more recent ones features a young, long-haired, “emo” sort of edgy young man who rear-ends an older stereotypical serious business man dressed in a suit, driving a black high-end sedan.

Here is a link to it if you don’t know what I’m talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZxlqNht5jg

The older man immediately assumes the young fellow likely has some worthless cut-rate insurance policy, though they quickly realize they have the same coverage – even the same agent.

The younger guy seems to be almost drawn to a meta-physical revelation and says, “It’s kinda like we’re connected!”  This is obviously an odious concept to the elderly dude who twice asserts firmly, “No we’re not!” … though the obvious inference is that, like it or not, they are connected through their insurance coverage.

People who are different from each other – be it by age, interests, occupation, or a myriad of other qualities – will always find some difficulty in rallying around those fewer elements they have in common. This is human nature; it is not new – not even in the church of Christ. The family of faith is filled with quite a variety of people who have found a common eternal life insurance in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul had to remind the Colossians that “here there is no Gentile or Jew, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another …”

We are a very diverse church family at Tri-State Fellowship. We are no longer just a baby boomer church with a lot of teens and children. Now we have elderly people, families with teenagers, young families with little kids, newly-marrieds, young adults and every other category imaginable. But in Christ, we are connected – yes we are … no we’re not … YES WE ARE!

This is not a weakness; this is a strength – if we will embrace it for all it can give in terms of a rich diversity of people saved by grace. Why settle for a cut-rate church experience, where everyone is just like you?