Fingerprints

I expected to leave the police department with inky fingers, but did you know that they don't even use ink pads to make fingerprints anymore? It is all computer generated. You just roll your finger across the pad and it prints out a digital fingerprint instantly.

But even more amazing than the method is the product, the fingerprint itself. I stared at the sheet with all my little fingerprints on it, fascinated by the intricate lines and loops. Then I raised my hand to my face, and my gaze shifted from the paper to my fingers. I inspected the pads of my own fingertips and began to see the swirls and patterns in my own skin.

"Look at this," I said to my friend, "Isn't that cool? No one else in the whole world has a fingerprint like this." I smiled. "Only me."

She nodded and contemplated. "You know what else is amazing?" She added, "Fingerprints don't change. You would think that with all the use and regeneration of skin cells, that your fingerprint would change over time..." She paused before continuing, "...but it doesn't."

Later that evening, dinner was served on the front lawn, so my friends and I laid a picnic blanket in the sunshine and enjoyed bar-b-que sandwhiches and mango sherbet outside. We tossed the frisbee for a while, and once our bare feet got nice and dirty, we headed to the fountain to soak in the cool water and watch the sun go down. I couldn't quite believe it, but I actually didn't have anything that I had to do. So we sat there on the edge of the fountain watching the sky grow dark and the light in the fountain illuminate the dancing waters.

"Have you ever thought about how water makes noise?"

"Well, I guess not." Rachael said with a little laugh.

"I mean, think about a little stream in the middle of the mountains. You can hear a babbling brook babble, but what really makes that noise? It is just water moving over rocks, but it's not the rocks making noise. It is the water! In my mind, water shouldn't make any noise. After all, it is just water." I paused to think, listening to the splashing water. "But I am so thankful that it makes that lovely sound."

I knew I probably sounded ridiculous, but at the same time, I was truly thankful to God for His creativity in making water over rocks musical. I listened to the water sing its song, I watched the sky grow dark, I saw the green trees turn into perfect silhouettes, and I caught a glimpse of God's fingerprint.

There is no fingerprint like it in the whole entire world. And it never changes. I see it in creation, in seasons and weather, and I see it in people, in faces and personalities. I see God's fingerprints on my circumstances and on the timeline of this life. There is just nothing else quite like it - nothing so perfect, so good, so faithful, so satisfying. Nothing else has made a mark on my life like that fingerprint.

And it never changes. From age to age, from the beginning of time into all eternity, God had been placing His fingerprints on the world. On our hearts. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. No matter how much use or wear and tear, nor how much pain and disaster, God's fingerprint remains the same. God Himself remains the same.

No wonder I am so fascinated by these fingerprints.

So now look at your fingers long and hard until you begin to see the swirls and whirls that belong to no one else in the world. Think about the loving touch that God put into that fingerprint of yours when He created it. Then look around you and see if you don't begin to notice God's fingerprints on your environment, the people around you, and your very own circumstances. No one else in the whole world has the fingerprint of God Almighty, and only He can touch and transform you in His holy way.