Uniquely and wonderfully made

For the past few years we have spent our winters visiting one of our children who lived in the DFW area. Though the weather was not always balmy we really enjoyed spending time with them, without worrying about the freezing sub zero weather. That little family has since moved to colder parts of NY state, so this year we chose to spend a couple of months in Florida, renting a house with old friends.


The house is in a residential area, mostly single family homes, away from those big condos and hotels, and a quarter of a mile from the beach.


So daily (or almost daily) I walk along the sandy coastline, and inevitably see many of those things one would expect to see along the Atlantic coast.


I am amazed that daily walks along the same shore can have such different sights. The birds are always there- certainly the sea gulls.





.. But such different kinds, some they typical sea gull gray and white... Others with almost black and white polka dots along their back and tail feathers and some really new ones to us.
Black skimmers (the one on the left)



Pelicans waiting for their free meals


And even an egret


All these birds, so similar but none exactly the same, and I am awed ..what a wonderful God we have that makes each one a unique creature.
We have a lot of grandchildren, and since my friend wanted to collect shells, I too decided to start collecting some for mine. If I thought looking at the birds reminded me how God made each a unique creature, I was (and am) overwhelmed by looking at the shells...


Each one so so different from its neighbor... White ones, brown ones, blue one, black ones,


some with burgundy, others almost yellow, tan ones, ivory ones, grey ones, some two toned, three toned ( I guess God made the first ombré!) some with the lines of the curves going from hinge to end, and some with the lines following the curves of the shell,


little ones, big ones... None perfectly shaped, but each of them perfect unto themselves. Unless a shell was attached to its other side it is almost impossible to find the one that originally was made for that other side. There was a few shells that had collected their own collection of shells over the years.


Shells barely out of the nest resting on a star fish that was in the process of growing a new leg/arm.


And one shell that obviously had some breach over time and God had made it able to grow repetitiously on top of itself to cover that breach, but because of sand, those layers looked like shells on top of each other...





All of this reminds me how much God loves us to make us so unique...special...no other can take our place...others might try but they will never be who WE are.