Assembly 18/10/05 "God makes us different"

Get four bags, as different as possible. A big suitcase, a briefcase, backpack, and a carrier bag.

Put something of equal value into them, I printed out identical, large 500 euro notes.

Ask for four volunteers. Get each one to open the respective bags and look inside. Ask them if the size and appearance of the bag gave any clue to the value of the item that was inside? No, it didn't.

God makes every one different. When he made you and me he threw away the mould!

We are different in size, shape, colour, intelligence, and so on. But we are all equally valuable. The Bible says that everyone is made to be a bit like God. So we can think, love and act in a right way.

Therefore, everyone is special and of equal value. It doesn't matter if you are tall or short, fast or slow, good at schoolwork or not, everyone is valuable. It's good that we're all different because, if we were all the same, life would be very boring, wouldn't it?

I am now going to read a Psalm, or a hymn of praise, written about three thousand years ago.

It tells how God knows everything about us and how important we are to Him.

( This is from "The Message" )

Psa 139:1 A David psalm. GOD, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.

Psa 139:2 I'm an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.

Psa 139:3 You know when I leave and when I get back; I'm never out of your sight.

Psa 139:4 You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence.

Psa 139:5 I look behind me and you're there, then up ahead and you're there, too-- your reassuring presence, coming and going.

Psa 139:6 This is too much, too wonderful-- I can't take it all in!

Psa 139:7 Is there any place I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight?

Psa 139:8 If I climb to the sky, you're there! If I go underground, you're there!

Psa 139:9 If I flew on morning's wings to the far western horizon,

Psa 139:10 You'd find me in a minute-- you're already there waiting!

Psa 139:11 Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I'm immersed in the light!"

Psa 139:12 It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.

Psa 139:13 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb.

Psa 139:14 I thank you, High God--you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration--what a creation!

Psa 139:15 You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.

Psa 139:16 Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day.

Psa 139:17 Your thoughts--how rare, how beautiful! God, I'll never comprehend them!

Psa 139:18 I couldn't even begin to count them-- any more than I could count the sand of the sea. Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!