SEPTEMBER 2, 2026

 “At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.” 

― Friedrich Nietzsche

PROVERBS 1-2

8Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction

and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

9They are a garland to grace your head

and a chain to adorn your neck. (1:8-9)

1 CORINTHIANS 12

12Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by^c one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

JOURNAL 

The more I teach science, the more compelling I find the mystery of simply being human. The human body is made of tens of trillions of cells, each carrying out its own work, yet somehow they cooperate to form one living person. But even that barely touches the mystery. Out of all the people who have ever lived, there has never been another me, and there will never be another me. The same is true of every person I encounter. Nietzsche recognized something profound when he wrote that every person knows at some level that he is “a unique being, only once on this earth.” We are each this extraordinary combination of body, mind, personality, experience, gifts, relationships, memories, hopes, fears, and consciousness that has never existed in precisely this form before and never will again.

The older I get, the harder it is for me to look at that reality and believe it is merely accidental. Science can describe the cells, the DNA, the organs, and the systems. It can explain mechanisms with astonishing precision. But there remains something beyond mechanism. Why does all of it come together into a person? Why this particular person? Why do I experience myself as “me,” while every other person experiences an equally singular existence? There is something almost overwhelming about the diversity of humanity and yet the unity underneath it. Billions of utterly unique people, all sharing the same fundamental human design.

That is why Paul's description of the body in 1 Corinthians 12 becomes more profound to me the more I think about it. “The body is not made up of one part but of many.” That is true biologically, but it is also true spiritually. God does not seem interested in sameness. Creation itself seems to proclaim diversity within unity. Different cells form one body. Different organs form one person. Different personalities, abilities, experiences, and gifts form families, communities, and ultimately the body of Christ. Our differences are not flaws in the design. They are part of the design.

That changes how I want to see other people, and it changes how I want to see myself. I do not have to measure another person's weaknesses against my strengths, nor my weaknesses against someone else's strengths. I can recognize that God has given each of us something particular to contribute. Even my parents' instruction, the experiences that shaped me, the people I have loved, the mistakes I have made, and the gifts I have been given have all become threads in a life that belongs uniquely to me. Proverbs describes a father's instruction and a mother's teaching as something of beauty and honor. Even what we receive from others becomes woven into the person we are becoming.

And perhaps that is what I find most compelling. I am not merely one more interchangeable human being among billions. Neither is anyone else. Each person is an unrepeatable expression of humanity, astonishingly complex on the inside and uniquely situated within something much larger than himself. The cells belong to the body, the parts belong to one another, and we belong to something greater than ourselves.

I cannot prove God by simply pointing to the complexity of a cell or the uniqueness of a personality. But when I stand back and consider the whole picture, God becomes increasingly difficult for me to dismiss. There is an order, creativity, unity, and almost unimaginable diversity to existence. Science helps me understand how much of it works, but instead of diminishing my faith, that understanding deepens my wonder. The more I learn, the more remarkable the mystery becomes.

Maybe that is part of what Paul was revealing long before we understood cells, DNA, or biological systems: many parts, one body. Diversity and unity existing together. Each part necessary. Each part belonging. Each person unique.

There will never be another me. There will never be another you. And perhaps the greatest response to that realization is not pride, but gratitude. I have been given this particular life, these particular gifts, and this particular place in the body for a reason. My task is not to become someone else. It is to become fully who God created me to be and then offer that life back to Him in service to the whole.

But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

1 CORINTHIANS 12:24-27