Unity

Have you noticed how words change their meaning over time? Take “Unity” for example. In every day use we sort of know what it means, it’s that thing where we can agree to disagree, come to terms with diversity, be OK with people having a different point of view while having SOMETHING in common even if it’s just that we are all made in the image of God, although even THAT can be a stretch sometimes!

Back in the days when I actively studied maths and electronics, ‘unity’ meant that parity had been achieved - both sides of a scale had the same weight - volts, amps or whatever it was we were looking at that day, had stopped flowing from one side of an equation to the other, balance had been achieved. In human terms I wonder if that is when we stop trying to convince the other ‘side’ we are better or that their view is less important or something? Is it when we are able to live our lives in such a way that they become attractive to others instead of dominant? Is it the ability to decide to embrace and become one (another concept that hides in the word unity) despite obvious differences?

This under developed idea (sorry) has one thing right, the starting point. “All created in God’s image.” That base thought leads to a wonder of how diverse God must be to have so many wonderful people ALL made in his image! It gets better, if that is true, I wonder how far our point of view is inherently limited simply because we are not omnipresent and only have our one very limited point of view? How amazing God must be when all those images and views are put together!

I have a feeling that common word meaning drift (there must be an official way of describing that?) has taken us down a rather strange path. Have we gone so far the unity is only possible if two things are the same? I do hope not!