July 26, Aunt and Uncle Day for those of you that are interested....

Well the Coos Bay kids are at the fair getting ready to show their animals.  Wish I could be there with them.

Going to have a pretty much home grown dinner tonight, all except the chicken came from Carla’s garden.  We will be having baked zucchini, fried/steamed beans and tomatoes along with the baked chicken.  For desert we will be having a blackberry cobbler.

Sure do appreciate Carla’s green thumb and tenacity to plant and take care of her garden.  It is nice having fresh vegetables at our finger tips and can pick and fix immediately.

Carla’s mom always had a large garden and a lot of corn that was ready for harvest towards the end of August.  I can remember going down there, arriving late at night and she would go out and pick me some ears fixing them for me, right then.

Now, THAT is fresh vegetables and boy were they good.  I would eat several ears of it before retiring.  When dinner time came along they always had meat, etc. – I was quite satisfied with a plate full of that corn on the cob.

Psalm 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

This morning, as I awoke, I started thinking about how unique we are.

In many ways we are similar, we have eyes, ears, mouths, bone structure, etc.  We have fingers and toes, we have skin that covers us and the list goes on.

We were designed by God.  We are made in His image, everyone – we share common characteristics.

Yet, we are also very unique.  We have heard that no two fingerprints are the same.  I thought about it for a moment:

There are over 7 Billion people in the world, today.  Ten fingers for each person, each finger print on each person’s hand is different from the others – 7 Billion people, times ten is 70 Billion different fingerprints – add that to the number of human beings that have lived on this planet since Noah and the number is probably two times and more than that.

Each of us has eyes that are unique.  They are so different that high end security locks are designed to open only to the eye that has been approved – all others are incapable of opening it.

Each person’s DNA is different from any other person and scientists are still learning the secrets hidden within them.

We are made alike, yet, we are not the same.  We may have similar characteristics with some people, we may share ideology, personalities, values and other things that make us feel comfortable in the presence of some people.

Mathew 10:29-30  Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

³⁰ But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Each person, even identical twins, is different from every other person on the planet.

God created man, and while we are in the image of God, He made it so each of us is the same, but different from each other.

And He knows us as individuals.  He doesn’t know us by color or by nationality; those things are irrelevant as far as He is concerned.  He knows us as an individual, just like we know other people as individuals, we can name them, describe them, pick them out of a crowd.

What is important to God is what we have done with His Son, Jesus.  He looks into our hearts and knows whether we have accepted Him as our Savior, or not.  

While He knows all of us; while He loves and cares for all of us; only those that have chosen Jesus can be called His children and without that designation we are lost for eternity.

I have arrested many people over the years.  I genuinely felt bad about having to arrest some people, they were remorseful, they often were caught up in circumstances not of their own choosing and made bad choices.  But, my job was to make the arrest and turn them over to the court system.

I have seen judges hand out sentences sending people to jail or prison, people they wanted to forgive but the crime was committed and there was a judgement, demanded by the state laws, that had to be enforced and passed.

We know God is a loving God; I often wonder if He weeps as He passes sentences on those that have ignored their salvation – He knows each of us, intimately, there are times when it must be painful to pass judgement.

However, He has given all an opportunity, He has made it clear what we must do to spend eternity with Him and not to accept that gift of life is to our own peril. 

Later, Art :-)