Snowflakes and Souls :: By Robert Asher Mandel
This week is the birthday of Wilson Alwyn Bentley, better known to history as “Snowflake Bentley.” He took the very first photograph of a snowflake in 1885 and made the study and photography of snowflakes his life’s work. In all, Bentley took photos of over 5,000 snowflakes and found no two of them to be alike! His beautiful photos can still be found online today.
If all of the trillions of lowly snowflakes the world over can be uniquely designed by the handiwork of our great Savior, then how much more the crown of God’s creation – man!? No wonder the psalmist writes,
“I am fearfully and wonderfully made”! (Ps. 139:14)
Did you ever wonder why God took the trouble to make us this way? I suppose there are a number of reasons, but one of them may lie in this verse in Eph. 2:10:
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
Since our souls are all uniquely made, it is also reasonable to believe that the works God has for us to do have also been crafted to suit each soul’s unique make-up. One of the greatest joys of my life has been to discover those particular things God has led me to do! I pray often for the Holy Spirit to guide me to walk in all of the “good works” He has specifically prepared for me.
In chapter 3 of the Book of Nehemiah, the Holy Spirit goes to great lengths to acknowledge the individual contributions of all of the Israelites who helped to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. In all, 53 different names are mentioned along with the specific skills each man possessed. Why didn’t the Lord simply say something like this:
“Many men did much work to complete the purpose of the Lord.”
I believe it is because the Lord keeps far better records of all that we do than we think, and He wanted us to know it! His integrity demands that He document even the smallest good work in preparation for His judgment of our works at the “Bemah Seat of Christ.” Recall that the Lord told us that He would reward even the small act of giving a cup of cold water to a servant of the Lord! How exciting to know that we serve a God like that! His righteousness won’t allow Him to be or do any less!
But what if you have not yet found what it is the Lord has designed for you to do?
If you are still trying to discover the particular good works that God has prepared for you to do, I would like to suggest 4 ways of finding them…
1 – Pray for it! – (There is no more effective way for knowing the Lord’s will.)
2 – Ask others – (Family and friends can see things in us that we don’t even see.)
3 – Find your Joy! – (In my experience, joy in the doing of our ministry is the single greatest confirmation that we have correctly identified our “place on the wall.”)
4 – Examine your own uniqueness – (Carefully consider the ways that God has made you unique. The way we are made is a great clue as to which good works we are called to.)
Concerning the last suggestion… For years, I tried to evangelize by personally speaking to people. Although I speak for a living, I never had any success evangelizing at all. I finally became so frustrated that I cried out to the Lord about it, and to my amazement, He did not say one word about how to do this kind of work in a better way. Instead, He told me that there are many kinds of ways to evangelize, and the way He had designed for me was not to speak but to write!
Since then, He has helped me to write a book, The Amazing Millennium from A to Z, over 30 articles for Rapture Ready, two websites full of content, a 6-month prophecy series for my congregation, and many personal testimony tracts for people who asked my help to give their story to others. In doing so, I have found fruitfulness and much joy! Referring back to the lesson of Nehemiah 3, this is what happens when a metal worker stops trying to be a stone mason and begins to fashion gate hinges instead. He becomes useful, purposeful, and joyful!
In closing, remember that no one wants to see you happily engaged in your own God-created good works more than God Himself! To prove it, He gives us this wonderful promise in 1 John 5:14, 15:
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”
It is certainly within His will for us to be active for the Kingdom. It is also within His will for us to ask Him to lead us into the good works He has (uniquely) prepared for us to do! Jesus said, “Ask, that your joy may be full.” Pray and expect God to keep that promise in His own good time, and when He reveals it, you will have the discernment to recognize it and the confidence to enter into it.
Snowflake Bentley revealed to the world that no two snowflakes were made alike. God has revealed to the world that no two souls are made alike because each soul is created to fulfill a unique ministry that only they can complete. Snowflakes and souls: “Are you not much more valuable than they?” Next time it snows, think on these things!
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