Bible Reading: Psalm 139:13-14
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it. Psalm 139:14
Here’s a wild question for you kids to ask your parents: “Think way back to when you were a kid. Can you remember what you thought about the reflection you saw in the mirror? (There were mirrors back then, weren’t there?) Or when you look at pictures of yourself as a little kid, what do you think?”
Lots of us have stood in front of the mirror and said something like this: “God, you messed up when you made me!”
Maybe you’re a girl and you have to run around in the shower to get wet—you’re so skinny the water spray misses you. Or you’re a guy and you’re missing the muscles all the other guys seem to own. When you really start growing up, you might not even recognize that person staring back at you in the mirror. One minute you’ll have a plastic-perfect complexion. The next you’ll discover that a Godzilla-like pimple has taken the end of your nose hostage.
Listen carefully. You aren’t alone. All of us have had moments of unhappiness as we looked in the mirror. But the truth is that God doesn’t make mistakes. He didn’t goof on you or anyone else. Whether you feel too tall, too short, too big, too little, or even too ugly, God made you just as you are. He thinks you are perfect.
God loves variety. That’s why no two flowers are exactly the same, no two snowflakes are duplicates, and no two people are identical. He didn’t want you to be just like everybody else because to him, you’re a standout. He made you different because you deserve to be different. You deserve to be interesting and unique.
We do, of course, have some options in how we look. We can’t change how tall we are, but we can somewhat control how we fill out that height. How we eat (several slabs of pizza washed down with a liter of cola every day for lunch will impact how you look—duh!) and how we exercise (working out with the chess team doesn’t really count) will make a difference. And a doctor can help us solve some appearance problems with our weight, skin, or overall wellness.
But the basic genetic formula that stares back at us in the mirror is God’s masterpiece. You are special because God made you special, different because God made you different. If you looked like everyone else, you wouldn’t be you.
TALK: God hand-made you as his masterpiece. How are you unique from other people?
PRAY: God, you didn’t make any mistakes when you made us. Thanks for making each of us unique!
ACT: Make a sign to hang on the mirror that reminds you that God did a marvelous job when he made you.
