One-of-a-kind Mug Number Ten

One-of-a-Kind Mug Number Ten

I love wrapping my fingers around a mug filled with hot, aromatic coffee, morning or night. I like the weight of my numerous mugs, their irregularities, and the random stories behind them.

A few weeks ago, I ordered a handcrafted mug to support one of my favorite virtual gathering places, a community of writers, singers, and other believing artists whose work I enjoy.

When my mug arrived, I immediately liked its heft, its roughness, and its rich ocher color with splashes of scarlet inside. I liked the nicely curved handle, wide enough to slip three fingers through, and the mug’s lettered rim. But it took a few days before I noticed something else about my mug: the tiny numeral ten etched just beneath the handle, reminding me that of the dozens of mugs crafted for this fund-raising purpose, mine was tenth in line. And although I’ve not seen the others, I am certain that while they might appear similar, none is quite like this one. Mug number ten is one of a kind.

You are too. And so am I.

God’s creativity is so limitless that he has never, in the creation of bodies and souls, crafted the same one twice. For all of our similarities, we are different down to the very contours of our finger pads. The desires of our hearts, the gifts we bear, the abilities we possess—these are unique. No two alike, anywhere, ever. C. S. Lewis opined that there are no ordinary men or women, that each of us is shot through with something utterly eternal.^a And he was right.

We might not have unique numbers etched on our surfaces, but we are fearfully and wonderfully made just the same. Mug number ten’s beauty is a testimony to the skill of its potter, and your own particular ins and outs are a great shout of praise to your maker too. Glory be to God for molding and shaping you just as you are. He has done well, indeed.

The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

Romans 9:20-21, NASB

^a C. S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory,” in The Weight of Glory (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 46.