One of a Kind

September 1

Let us take the time to consider the fact that every human being that has ever lived is unique. As far as we know, there has never been anyone who is like anyone else – throughout all of human history.

We know about the fact that every person has a unique set of fingerprints (that’s why, on those crime shows, criminals who don’t wear gloves get caught!).

But Science also tells us that there are many other ways in which every person ever born is unique…

We each have a unique voice. There are many reasons for this… neck length, width of pharynx, shape of the larynx (voice box), lip and mouth shape, and others – all effecting voice frequency (high/low), intensity (loud/soft), nasality, vocal cord tightness, and resonance. All these factors work together to produce a sound that is unique but recognizable (like the voice of our favorite singer or a best friend).

We each have a unique tongueprint. Yeah, I know… kinda weird. But the truth is your tongue has it’s own shape and texture – the tiny bumps and ridges are distributed differently in every person.

We each have a unique teeth-set. We’ve heard about this one too (back to those crime shows), where certain bodies are identified by dental records. Environmental factors, diet, and certain habits (clenched jaw, teeth grinding, etc.) can make even the teeth of identical twins unique.

We each have a unique retina. We’ve all seen those spy-type movies where someone opens some specialized room with a retinal scan. That’s because every person’s retinal blood vessels form a unique pattern that are a precise snapshot of one’s nervous system. Doctors are even looking at our retinas to detect the first signs of diabetes, blood pressure, or declining brain health.

We each smell uniquely. This works two ways. Each of us emit a slightly different, but distinct, odor (isn’t it wonderful to know that even our B. O. is unique!) And we each have different ways in which we identify odors and aromas. No two people can have the same perception of the same smell. A particular food smell, for instance, might be “heavenly” to me, but “nauseating” to you – and we’re both right. This plays a role in people’s likes and dislikes in culinary choices.

Other unique traits include the iris of our eyes, our lip print (yes, there’s even a forensic science for this [Cheiloscopy]), the gait of our walk, how light reflects off the rim of our ears. And our toe prints (same unique features as our fingerprints).

All of these qualities are distinct for every person who has ever lived on the face of the earth. So we can all proudly proclaim that we are each “one of a kind!”

The real question is… why?

Is there any evolutionary advantage for being unique in all these subtle ways? Would any of these qualities cause us to survive more readily than if they were all the same in each of us?

Could it be that all these unique qualities only make sense in the light of the thoughts of an infinite Creator? We have NO reason to be so unique except that our uniqueness just might matter to Him. Perhaps our uniqueness is a demonstration of His infinite ability to creatively create?

Jesus pointed out something odd, one day… He told us:

What a strange thing to tell us. Who would do that kind of thing? Why bother to count hairs, when there are certainly far more important things to think and do.

Yet, this was meant to point us to the meticulous thought and the personal attention that is ours in the eyes of our Creator. We have His complete attention for even the tiniest details about each of us. We are not just humans en masse. We are each a solitary expression of His infinte purpose and will. And He made it a point that each of us would be one of a kind.

Think about that for a moment… Anything that is one of a kind in this world is also something else… priceless. Immensely valued… beyond everything ordinary.

Could this also be a gift from our Creator? To know that we are not just a face in the crowd. A number on a roll. A nobody… amidst an untold number of nobodies.

Being unique makes us irreplaceable. Invaluable. Indispensable.

The very opposite of what evolution tells us that we are. In evolutionary thinking, we are cosmic accidents, the result of a mindless, purposeless bustle of undirected activity. We are only matter… so we don’t really matter. We are of no more actual worth than a tree, or a squid, or a cockroach. 

   

We are just animated cells, here today… gone tomorrow.

We cannot miss this… at the heart of the debate on origins is the whole idea of purpose. Evolution offers no foundation in purpose. We are purposeless – because there was no purpose behind our existence.

But IF we were the thought and creation of an Infinite Creator, we are endowed with purpose because we are an act of His will, His power, His expression. And we are of tremendous worth to Him… because He decided to make us each… the only one of us who will ever be.

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