beauty in diversity.

i just walked into a typical scene in our home:

wooden dollhouse decorated in ways that make me want to live there [green-striped hammocks and canopies--yes please!]
and piles of plastic animals, strategically and artistically tableau-ed here and there.

what strikes me today though is the diversity with which these animals are placed.
the diversity in which they are always placed.

there is the family of cats who have taken their roof-top friend cockatoo into their home because of the tornado looming outside;
and the dogs who are harboring the roof-dwelling pelican for the same reason.
down below in the place lovingly named the 'junkyard' there is a pack of dogs [mother, father, brother, sister, aunt and uncle] living alongside a fox and raccoon; 2 best friends who have raised a mouse and rabbit together.
the whooping crane and ballerina who have partnered to nurture the wounded owl and lizard family who were lost and without a home of their own.

these are scenes i am constantly observing as our sweet sweet 'trio expand and utilize their vast imaginations.

quite frequently i will be told that L or 'B, both dogs of course, have given birth to kittens--or squirrels, or my favorite, puppy eggs!
and daily i am being beckoned by one of them to notice the stray animal [they] who is wandering in the woods [of our dining room] and has lost their family [in random tragic event] and would i please take them in?
or they are a royal family and i am the lost one and they take me in.  (=



do not assume that these insurmountable biological feats are mistakes of 3 young minds.
they are not.
[we have a highly intelligent brood here in our home!  and they do not truly believe that mammals hatch out of eggs and wolves give birth to swans...but they do know that anyone can be a mother to anyone if they are in need of love and can show love.]

i am reminded of when A was a little one and would raaar at A2 like a lioness and rear her paws at him in the funniest fashion, or when she was 6 [highly intelligent remember] and asked quite honestly;

"exactly what color would L be when he came out of my belly?"

it is apparent that these are simply clear assumptions of the world around them.
we were privileged enough to have them grow up [quite a bit anyway] on a christian college campus where we were surrounded by mass amounts diversity.
and were blessed to have been able to create a family out of those people.
what a beautiful picture of God's love He allowed us to share in.

i think that is a huge reason that our children do not see color or differences the way that we have learned to see them.

they are confident that there are no stereotypical barriers--between man (or, humans, as the 'trio calls us) or animal!

and they know that when you find something or someone 
that is lost, you show them home.  


i am SO thankful for the eyes that our children have been blessed with.  (=