Take a look at the photographs below and consider the two men.  Besides their skin color, are there any other differences?

Yes, one is wearing glasses and the other is more dressed up.  But otherwise how do these two men differ?

In many places, including in the United States of America, these two men might encounter very different reactions from people, but the truth is that they are the same person.  The photo on the left was taken in 2005.  Shortly afterward, spots began to appear on the man’s skin in several places including the face and arms and rapidly spread over his body.  These spots were where the pigment cells had died.  The man was suffering from an auto-immune disorder that destroys skin pigmentation.  This disorder, known as vitiligo, is widespread in all populations.  In most cases, the destruction of pigment cells is slow, and only rarely does it completely change skin color in the person’s face or other major parts of the body.  Instead large parts of the skin are spotted.  In the case of the man pictured above, the spots grew and spread rapidly as the man lost his pigment cells in over ninety percent of his body.  In five years, he had undergone a complete skin-color change.

The photo on the right was taken is 2019.  The slight greying of the mustache and hair suggest that the man on the right is older.  He is by fourteen years.  Otherwise, the visible change in him is difficult to see.

Let’s ask the Bible, the Word of God to answer the question in the title.  The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write these words in Acts 17:24-26 (NIV):

 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.”

Paul’s words are clear.  God, the Lord of creation, the giver of life to all of us, made us all from the same human parent.  The differences between black and white people are not even skin deep, only slight variations in the function of the skin’s pigment cells, in keeping with the variety in every created thing.  As proven in the previous blog posts, there are no human races; there is only one human race. The two men in the photograph above are the same person, and the writer of this Blog post is he.  So I, this man born with dark skin but now and older man without skin pigment – commonly called white skin – I appeal to sensibleness.  God granted us brains by which we can think and reason.  Let’s dispense with the nonsense and realize that we are one humankind.  Let’s consider the act of our Creator of making us of a common parent.  Most of all, let’s reflect upon the prayer of Jesus our Lord (John 17:20-23) that we all might be one.