Murray Smith
I walked by a mother getting her children out of a car, in town ages ago. One little girl stared then began yelling excitedly as she pointed at me, “Mum! Mmumm it’s him! It’s him… it really is him!”
At the time I was frequently told I resembled a well known Australian TV personality. Especially if I wore a certain style of khaki shirt I happened to like. Well, I wasn’t ‘him’… I was me. I’m still happily discovering what that means.
An amazing fact about human beings is that underneath surface likenesses, we are totally different to each other. Of all the vast numbers of people who have ever populated the planet, there’s never been ‘double-ups’.
The uniqueness of every person is an unfathomable reality that ought to make us think. You are a one-off. The evidences for this are manifoldly evident.
A fingerprint identification system and database called the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), is operated by the FBI in the United States. They currently hold fingerprint records of over 51 million people. Not one set of prints is a duplication of another – if this weren’t the case, there would be no point in holding fingerprint records.
Even so-called ‘identical twins’ who are meant to have identical DNA, differ in appearance and are not the same in terms of height, physical makeup, fingerprints and so on. Although identical twins form from the same egg and get the same genetic material from their parents, they pick up genetic mutations in the womb. Their cells weave new strands of DNA, splitting into more and more cells which means they are far from genetically identical by the time they’re born.
Identity is a big deal. Who am I really and what am I here for? Amidst the masses of humanity, does my brief sojourn on earth matter and can it actually count for anything in a meaningful way?
Every person has deep in-built longings for significance…to truly settle their sense of identity and belonging. For this reason people hang together, seeking their ‘tribe’, a people of their own likeness, in a community, club, or even a gang affiliation. I believe this need for significance and belonging is not a psychological thing as much as a deep spiritual longing.
You see, we were designed by God with an innate capacity for ‘fellowship’, to matter somewhere and to amount to something. Only through personal relationship with Him, will we find meaning and purpose and an explanation of what our lives are about. Attempting to fill this deficit by exchanging other things to substitute what can only be found through God, is futile.
Everyone desires a purpose bigger than acquiring money, prestige or whatever…to be known and loved for who we really are…With God we’ll find value in our true identity and the right path for our life, our unique assignment, passion and destiny.
“We are God’s creative masterpiece, created in Jesus Christ for good actions, that God prepared long ago to be our way of life.” (The Bible)
Twins. Photo: Alena Darmel, Pexels.com
