Deep in the heart of most of us is a desire to feel and know that we are special. We sometimes look to other people to make us feel special and while this is important to our overall well-being, lost in this desire sometimes is the awareness that by ourselves we ARE special. Science tells us that no one else has our set of fingerprints and that the tongue is unique to every person with respect to its shape and surface textures. We can find someone who looks like us, walks like us, acts like us, and have any number of characteristics just like us, yet if a million babies are born into the world on that day that we leave it, none of them could take our place. In other words, as individuals, we are not only special but also irreplaceable.

When David – astonished at the admirable contrivance of his body, the composition of every part, and the harmony of it altogether – declared “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14), he could just as easily have added the word “uniquely” as well. Science also tells us that even the hairs on our head have our own unique DNA print. Every morning we can look into the mirror and say, with some modesty of course, “I am special, there is no one quite like me.” You are not being vain because it is true.

For the believer, we have even more reason to feel special; we have been chosen by God (John 15:16). Lest we think that by accepting Jesus as Lord we were the ones who did the choosing, Jesus reminds us: “No one is able to come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me attracts and draws him and gives him the desire to come to Me” (John 6:44, AMPC). Consider that if Jesus had not died, we would not have been able to be partakers of His salvation, but as you look into the mirror at your unique self, keep in mind that if you were the only one on earth, He would have done it anyway. That is just how special you are and a reflection of His thoughts towards you.

David got a glimpse of this when he declared, “How precious are your thoughts unto me, O God!  How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand” (Psalm 139:17-18, KJV). It is interesting to see how the Psalmist made it so personal considering his previous declaration in Psalm 40:5, “Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward.” It was as if he came to realize that God’s thoughts were not just universal, but very personal. So often we read that God so loved the world, but often not take the time to consider that in doing so He loves you and me as individuals. How great are His thoughts towards us? They are more in number than the sand. I submit that under any numbering system, that is a whole lot of thoughts! We are always on His mind. Praise God!