My son identifies himself as peach, the crayon color. His grandmother, my British mother in-law, asked him what color he thought she was and he said, without hesitation, “Peach!” She said, “Good.”
There are times when I wish we all would identify with each other in such creative descriptors. God is much more creative than “black” and “white.”
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But there will be a day when my biracial son will have to check a little box identifying his ethnicity. I’ve been asked before, “What if he picks white?” And honestly, I’m not all that concerned with what he checks. My husband and I have decided we will share our various heritage and history together. We will celebrate the beautiful diversity that is our family.
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What we really want our son to know is that our holy God, the Creator of the universe, created our son in His image. He created him equal in value and worth as he did with all people. We are equal in our fallen state as well. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Jesus, the son of God, the God-man, was born of a virgin and walked a perfect life. Jesus healed and performed miracles and was perfect in every way. He was tempted and yet never once sinned (Hebrews 4:15). This perfect man died on the cross, endured wrath that justly could have been reserved for us and rose conquering death (Romans 5: 9-10, 1 John 4:10). And all the grace and promises that are in Christ are now reserved for my son, if he places his faith and trust in the One who saves (John 3:36, 2 Corinthians 1:20).
Sure, I want my son to have an understanding of his background and what makes up his DNA. But the only identity that will ever truly matter is who he is in Christ. I want him to be more enamored with that identity than any other. That is the identity I want to be amazed by; not that I am black but that I am a child of God because of Jesus. I am His and He is mine. That’s amazing!
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One day my son will be a man and will make his own decision. And part of me hopes he is a little jokester and simply checks “other” and writes in “peach” on those forms of the future. Beyond color, my desire is that he would appease those asking, mark something, and know that his identity is “in Christ.”
