Ever heard the words, “God made you special.” I first thought that it was a term of endearment, but when I started thinking about it, I realized the statement to be true. We are all special. Every animal and plant on earth is special. How can that be, one may ask?

Think about it……Every one of us have different finger prints. No two are the same, not even identical twins. To go along with that our lip prints are similar to our finger prints and they, too, are all different. If one looks at the animal world which do not have fingers, but their nose prints are all different. Look at the whales and dolphins, that have markings on their flukes or tail. Scientist use these different patterns to tell them apart, because no two are the same.

Now beside the fingerprints, What else do we have in common that is different. Eye scans……If one looks in the iris of the eye, there is a pattern there that is backed up by the network of blood vessels and rods and cones that make up a pattern unique to each individual. I am not sure if this is true in the animal world, but I assume it to be true.

We also have DNA that is unique. What is DNA? It is a part of every cell in one’s body, that lives in the mitochondria of the cell that makes you ,you. As time goes by each cell dies and the DNA is what makes the dieing cell replicate to make another just like the one that dies. That is about as simple as I can put it. It is a strand of a double helix that contains all there is to know about you. When I was little they had not even discovered it yet. And now they have learned how to interpret this strand and they can predict if you will get certain diseases. Isn’t that amazing?

There are over 6 billion people in the world today. Each has its own DNA. Look at all the people who have died in the last 6000 years……They too, each had their own DNA. Each cell has all of the 46 chromosomes in it. This mitochondria lives in the Chromosomes. We get 23 chromosomes from our mom and 23 from dad. These things determine brown hair verses blonde, blue eyes vs. brown, tall vs. short. They make you who you are, and what you will look like. Now Pastor Allen will probably be better at this than me, but to determine all the possibilities of what one will look like, one has to take 46 x45 x44x 43x etc until it becomes x2 x1. Now my calculator was not big enough to show the answer, but it was a very BIG number.

Let us take a look at the animal world. Every animal out there also has its own DNA. And so does every plant. So how many plants are there in the world….not species….plants. And how many animals? And over 6 billion people and probably that many more that have lived and already died.. That is a lot of DNA. And God recognizes every one of them. The Bible also tells us that God recognizes, every hair on every head. We can not even begin to believe to imagine how great our Creator is.

Now how else are we unique from one another? Everyone’s voice is unique. You know when I listen to our church service on the telephone, I know who is talking just by the sound of their voice. Granny Ann, or the pastor, or Anna, or MS Mary, or Morgan, or most of all the others that we hear. The police have machines that can map your voice. It takes your voice and maps it into a bunch of squiggly lines, but no two are the same.

Now take this thought to Antarctica. Momma penguin has just surfaced with her crop full of fish and is doing her duty to feed her baby. She walks up the mountain of snow and sees the rookery and there stands 50,000 baby penguins. Her job is to find hers…..she does it by voice. She can recognize her babies voice. Seals have that same ability. A rookery of baby seals with hundreds of babies barking for food. Mama can find her own baby by the voice. Is that not amazing?

Now who can tell me another way we are not the same……pheromones. Pheromones is defined as a chemical compound, produced and secreted by an animal, that influences the behavior and development of other members of the same species. In simple terms, it is how we smell. I am going to start with the animal world first on this one and after I do you will understand why. Ever seen a cat or a dog mark its territory? They do that with their pheromones that are emitted through the secretions that they use to mark it with. Hogs have a gland on their back that they rub to mark theirs. Deer have a gland on their cheek. Bears rub their back on trees like they have an itch. Snakes leave a scent as they crawl so they mark their territory and they can use that to find their way back to their den, and if there is another snake around, and if it is a male or female, or if there is a mouse near.

Pheromones are most highly developed in the insect world. Ever spend any time watching an ant. I know you have better things to do but one can learn from them. They crawl along a trail. This trail is laced with ant pheromones so they can find their way to the ant hill. When they find a pile of sugar, they emit a different pheromone so they can go back to the hill and bring half the community back to the sugar pile. Each ant has its own scent and when the group goes to the sugar, all in a row, they are all putting down their pheromones. Now think about the trip back, Thousands of ants walked that trail and they only follow their own scent. To be able to pick that up is a miracle in itself.

Pheromones are mostly used to find a mate. I have seen female praying mantis that had 6 males clinging to it. I have seen lunar moth females with 3 males next to it, and walking sticks, and all sorts of other examples in the animal world trying to find a mate which is projected through the pheromones in the air. All different.

There are probably many more ways in which we are unique. These are the only ones, I know. However, if God knows every hair on our head, He also knows our voice and how we pray, He knows our eyes so he can look into our soul, He knows our DNA and what is in our heart, He knows every thing… That is amazing. My God is so awesome.