God’s Masterpiece

19 Jan God’s Masterpiece

Dear friends,

Driving to work this morning, I was enjoying the winter landscape outside my car window when I remembered something I learned in school:  that each snowflake is unique.  I pondered that thought as I drove, wondering if that can actually be true.  After all, how many snowflakes blanketed our region as the snow piled up to 6, 8, or 10 inches recently?  Doesn’t that have to be billions of flakes?  And if so, can each one really be different?

Thanks to Google, my questions were soon answered.  Here is what I discovered:

“The scientific consensus states that the likelihood of two large snow crystals being identical is zero.  The probability that two snow crystals (a single ice crystal) or flakes (a snow crystal or multiple snow crystals stuck together) will be exactly alike in molecular structure and in appearance, is very minute.”  And the reason?  “Because each ice crystal has a unique path to the ground.  They will float through different clouds of different temperatures and different levels of moisture, which means the ice crystal will grow in a unique way.” 

As to the question of the number of snowflakes, I was astonished to learn that each year in the United States approximately 1 septillion snowflakes fall.  That’s 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (24 zeroes).  That is a lot of uniqueness.

And that tells us something profound about our Creator God.  Clearly, God loves variety so much that it is deeply embedded into the fabric of creation.  And clearly, God is a Creative Genius which I can only imagine means that God appreciates our creativity.  I think it also speaks to how much God values every single aspect of creation, and there seems to be nothing either so small or so temporary that God doesn’t care about it.  If God values the uniqueness of snowflakes, which within a few hours or days will disappear without leaving a visible trace of their brief earthly presence, how much more does God value each one of us? 

Like snowflakes, we are each unique.   From our fingerprints to our life experiences, no two people are formed in the same way.  I want to remind you that you are precious and loved exactly as you are.  You are one of the Creative Genius’ masterpieces, and God is delighted with how you turned out. 

Our purpose on earth is to live as the masterpieces we are created to be.  That means: staying connected to our Creative Genius from whom we continually receive the creative breath of life; using our uniqueness to bless and serve others; honoring and encouraging the uniqueness in others; and being good stewards of the creation God has provided to us as our creative playground and learning lab. 

I wonder what would happen if we took God as Creative Genius more seriously.  Would we really treat other people so dismissively or judgmentally?  Would we care so little about what we are doing to our planet?  Would we fearfully guard our talents and abilities rather than sharing them with others?  Would we demand theological or ideological or political conformity to accept people?  Would we be so insistent that our understanding/idea/way was “right”? 

It’s something to think about, next time you see a snowflake fall. 

Yours for the Kingdom,

Michelle