Every human being is a limited edition. We are each a one-of-a-kind exclusive work of Almighty God. Researchers have found many different qualities that no human being shares with any other person. We are all familiar with the individuality of each person’s fingerprints but in a similar fashion each has a unique tongue-print as well. In addition, every person’s eye possesses an entirely distinctive appearance, and every person’s face and voice are unlike anyone else’s on the planet. Even our walking gait is individualized leaving behind unique footprints.
Arthur F. Miller, Jr and William Hendricks writing in The Power of Uniqueness: How to Become Who You Really Are emphasize the distinctiveness of every human. They state that, “Each of us has the capacity to generate 10 to the 3,000th eggs or sperm with unique sets of genes. If we consider 10 to the 3,000 possible eggs being generated by an individual woman and the same number of sperm being generated by an individual man, the likelihood of anyone else with your set of genes in the past or in the future becomes infinitesimal.”
I’m constantly amazed by a God Who has embedded such infinite variety into His creation. The closest we humans can come to that is for machines to spit out identical products except for unique serial numbers stamped on the side. In fact, we want many products to be exact duplicates to accommodate interchangeability.
Normally, the fewer there are of an item, the more valuable it becomes. The 1965 Shelby GT350R prototype sold for $3.85 million at a 2020 auction because it was the first of its model and the first competition Shelby Mustang. Imagine someone taking a sledgehammer to this classic vehicle. Even such a thought causes a visceral response in many who appreciate such limited edition fine automobiles. Sadly, it seems that such value does not always extend to human beings even though we are each a unique limited edition model of which there is no duplicate anywhere in time or space.
A while back I heard about a pregnant woman who was hit by a car. Thankfully she survived, but tragically, her baby did not. The careless driver was convicted of manslaughter and received the penalty assigned by the judge. But this woman was on her way to abort her unborn child. If she had safely arrived at the abortion facility, her child would have died but because this method of killing was protected by law, no one would have been held liable in the death of the unique human she carried. Isn’t it a bit odd that either way the child would have died that day but the unintentional killer was the one charged while the premediated one would not have been?
Thankfully the Dobbs decision has returned this issue to the states. But while some states have restricted this life-ending procedure, others, including Virginia, have not. It’s hard to believe that even with all our advanced medical knowledge, we still refuse to recognize the humanness of a unique unborn child and legalize its killing.
At a time when our nation is lamenting the deaths of many in the California wildfires and of even more from this past year’s hurricanes, how can we ignore the cries of over 62 million unique infants who were never permitted to experience any kind of life at all? That’s more than the combined populations of 26 of our 50 states and all were helpless innocent limited editions. We Americans permitted, advocated, or encouraged over one million abortions in 2023 alone. If someone destroyed that many Mustang automobiles (or horses) or Los Angeles homes, imagine the outcry and the corresponding penalty, and rightfully so. Instead it involved the priceless irreplaceable gifts of unique human beings each created in the image of God. May we work and pray for the day when abortions are not only rare, but illegal as well. Praying, George