To all those of you who are listening, who think that there’s nothing special about you, that you are common, ordinary, garden variety, and vanilla, I have something to say – something about your uniqueness.

The other day I was teaching a college institute class. It was a new semester, and I asked the class members to share their name and something unique about them, as a way of getting familiar with each other. It’s a way of just learning names and trying to remember them. Well, we went around the room and we listened to each student. Most of the comments about what they thought was unique about them were very entertaining.

I then came to one young mother. She announced that she had a condition called Pica. Pica! what in the world is that? I was thinking of some little rodent up in the mountains. She then explained that Pica is a condition that when she is pregnant, she craves non-edible things – as in – to eat them. In her case, she craves soap. Yeah, that’s right, soap! She wants to eat soap. And not just any soap will do; she craves Irish Spring! Well, by this time, the class was just laughing uncontrollably! And then to top it off, Kassie announced that she was expecting, and that this was a current situation!

I - I guess I was having a hard time believing this, because I hadn’t heard [of] it. I said - “You really do eat the soap?” I said.

She says, “No, I just rub the soap on the box and then chew on the box.”
“How does your husband feel about all this?” I said.

Well, she said, “The first pregnancy he was a little traumatized by it, but then he decided to go with it. Now he just rubs the soap all over his face.”

Well, the class just lost it!. I laughed so hard tears came to my eyes. That is one genius of a husband.

Now, if you will forgive me, I have been unable to forget that story. It keeps coming back to me, and every time I think about it, I start laughing again. So I hope that you won’t mind if I share a principle, something I learned that came to me from Kassie’s story.

My friends, we are children of God. I mean that. We are children of God; we’re not biological accidents, and we’re not mutant monkeys. Each of us is indeed unique in the full and complete sense of that word. There are things about us found nowhere else in the human family. And the closer we get to the God who made us, the more He brings out our individuality. Wickedness is sameness; righteousness is the only true individuality. You know, and I might add this too: Not only has God the Father blessed each of us to be delightfully different. But - like Kassie’s enterprising husband, God knows full well how to take advantage of our uniqueness for His blessing and for ours.

To paraphrase Paul, I may not be the head, but I can be the big toe of the body of Christ’s Church, and just let that body try to do without me - I don’t think so.

So the point, my dear friends: Go find your own soap, and make the most out of it.