I received two birthday cards yesterday, one from my sister and one from a dear friend. They are exactly the same other than the personalizations inside. Since both of the senders will read this I want to assure them that it is okay, because it is the personalization that makes the card so special. It’s like people are to God. People are basically all the same. If not, it would be impossible to write a psychology textbook. Psychology is only possible because of our samenesses. God has created billions of us. However, we are basically the same no matter what race or gender. Normal people (two standard deviations on either side of the mean) act and think alike. I doubt if I have ever thought an original thought because somewhere in time and space someone has already thought that thought.
But then there are the personalizations. Each of us is unique enough to make us special for God. God has never had persons like us. Perhaps there have been a trillion humans since Adam and Eve and never has there been another so like you and me. It’s the personalizations that matter. That is why God will forever mourn the eternal lose of someone who fails to accept the gift of eternal life. Every parent knows when they lose a child that no other child will ever fill the void left behind. I once heard someone try to console a grieving parent by saying, “You can have another.” Really?
Even if you have a hundred doppelgangers it does not make you replaceable because it isn’t your cheekbones God loves. It is your soul, your personality, your you.
Written by Roger Bothwell on June 13, 2016
PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
rogerbothwell.org