20. WE MAY NOT ALL BE EQUAL, BUT WE ARE ALL IRREPLACEABLE.
(Before looking at the questions below, take a few minutes to think about this statement. Invite Jesus to speak to you about what He would like you to notice.)
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE IDEA THAT YOU ARE AN IRREPLACEABLE PART OF THE UNIVERSE?
HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL TO THINK THAT EVERYONE YOU KNOW, AND DON'T KNOW, IS ALSO AN IRREPLACEABLE PART OF THE UNIVERSE?
HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL TO THINK THAT THE "OTHERS" IN YOUR LIFE ARE IRREPLACEABLE WHEN IT COMES TO SHAPING YOU INTO THE PERSON YOU ARE BECOMING?
DO YOU THINK GOD FEELS LIKE YOU ARE IRREPLACEABLE?
In Western culture, we tend to think that each person is autonomous and self-sufficient. However, in God's plan, we are more dependent than we realize, and each person adds a special value to the whole of creation. The Psalmist says that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made"(Psalm 139:14, NIV). Although each person has incredible value and worth, we are not all the same.
There are things about us that no other person in the universe possesses. For starters, our fingerprints. No two people have the same fingerprint. How amazing is that? Besides our physical uniqueness, each person has their own story. Where they live, the events of their life, who they know and are known by, their ethnicity, gender, and vocation, are all part of their unique narrative.
The fact that we have the same worth as others does not mean that we are the same. Each person is totally and completely unique. Like flowers in a vase, we each bring a special shape, color, and fragrance. Remove a flower and the bouquet is not the same. Remove a person, either physically or by suppressing their image and value, and the world is not the same. The Apostle Paul spoke about our irreplaceability by using the image of a body.
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by 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. Even so, the body is not made up of one part but of many. (1 Corinthians 12:12-14, NIV)
Paul goes on to talk about the different parts and how they all form one body, but no part is unimportant. If we imagine the parts of a human body, although almost innumerable, no part can be removed without the body suffering. Western culture elevates the individual so that we sometimes begin to think that we are self-sufficient.
We might think we can exist alone, without others, but the evidence does not support this. The television show "Alone" features individuals who go out and live on their own, with just their survival skills. All of them struggle to find enough food to survive and shelter to keep warm. But most of them struggle even more with loneliness. In fact, most contestants give up their chance at winning in order to be reunited with loved ones. We are not islands. We cannot exist without others. The others in our lives not only meet our need for relationships, but they shape us into the persons we are becoming.
Emerging studies in neuroscience reveal how important relationships are to our brain function. Dan Siegel is an authority on neuroscience. He states,
Our minds emerge not only from neural mechanisms but also from relationships we have with other people and with our planet. This means that we don't 'own' our minds, but rather we have an expanded sense of identity that goes beyond the boundary of our skin, beyond a definition of 'self'" that is limited to just our bodily encasement. When studies of happiness, health, longevity, and even wisdom are reviewed, the key feature shared by each of these attributes is relationships. (Siegel, Daniel J. Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology: An Integrative Handbook of the Mind. Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology, p. 30. W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.)
Siegel proposes a "triangle of wellbeing." This triangle includes our brains (the physical part of our body), our minds (the non-physical or spiritual part of us), and another person. Siegel says that without another person, our minds simply will not develop, and we essentially become a no-self.
Every person we meet leaves an imprint on our minds and those we spend the most time with play a significant role in shaping who we become. If you have lost a loved one, a parent, relative, or friend, then you know how irreplaceable these relationships are. When someone close to us dies, a part of our mind and relationship dies with them. We discover that I am not a me without a you, and every you matters.
Every person is unique, they have value that cannot be calculated, and in the greater picture of the universe, they are irreplaceable.