Fingerprints

I was listening to a news programme on the radio when there was a report on the way the police can detect and use fingerprints that are left at a crime scene. Each person’s fingerprints are different, making it possible for the police to identify whoever was present at a crime. That has been possible for a long time, but the report was highlighting recent developments that have made it possible not only to trace the fingerprints to individuals, but also to discover more about the person and what he or she may have been doing prior to the crime. For instance, from the fingerprints they can now detect the person’s gender, what they had been eating or drinking, and whether they had been using illegal drugs or handling explosives.

As I was pondering on this, I was impacted afresh by the amazing way that God has made each one of us to be unique. This is evidenced physically by the individuality of each person’s fingerprints. However, this is perhaps just an outward sign of how uniquely God has made us on the inside. We are created by Him with a spirit and soul containing our individual identity and personality. No two people are the same! You are unique!

If it is true from this news report that our fingerprints can reveal something of our lifestyle, it is also true that our spirit and soul can bear the effects of harmful experiences in our lives. For instance, if we have been involved in occult practices, our spirit may well have been defiled by those things and be carrying the effect long afterwards. If we have been controlled or dominated by others, we may have a residue of fear or shyness in our inner being. Any wounding that we have experienced in our lives can affect us on the inside.

However, just as God knows the unique identity that He has given each one of us, so too He knows all the ways that we have been affected by wounding throughout our lives and by the wrong choices that we have made. All of these will have left their mark on us, just as a person’s fingerprints can bear evidence of harmful things that have been touched. However, the good news is that God wants to cleanse and heal us of all past issues, if we are willing to cooperate with Him, and He wants to restore us into the unique identity that He has given each one of us.