Have you ever taken the time to examine your fingerprints? Look at yours right now. Notice how they are detailed and each one is unique. They are difficult to alter and are durable over our lifespan. But if they get worn down due to work such as brick-laying, your skin will regenerate and they will grow back as before. These features make them perfectly suitable as a long-term marker for individual human identity.

Humans are not the only creation that have this distinctive detail. Gorillas, chimps and koalas do as well. Some of their patterns are even difficult to distinguish from ours!

Research has not yet shown why everyone’s fingerprints are unique. Scientists cannot explain why they are typically arranged in elliptical swirls which include arches, loops and whorls. They suggest that the loop design may ensure that some ridges are always brushing perpendicular to a surface, no matter the orientation of the fingertips. A function of these skin ridges is thought to provide ‘friction’ or ‘traction’ when we grasp objects in daily life. They have found that the skin ridges also amplify and/or filter vibrations triggered when our fingerprints brush across an uneven surface.

Another possible purpose of these raised ridges, which are on our palms, feet and toes as well, is that they improve our sense of touch. Because our fingertips are ridged, our sense of touch is 100 times better than it would be if they were smooth.

Whatever the reasons are for us having fingerprints, there is no doubt as to how they came to be. Our Designer used them as one more way to show us our uniqueness in His creation, and our individualism in His eyes.

Sir Isaac Newton once said, “In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence.”

To even consider that over millions of years of human development and evolvement from amoebas to tadpoles to monkeys to humans, that somehow along the way, we realized the importance of needing something no other thing had, and therefore we found a way to develop them into what they are – without a specific primary purpose- is just laughable!

Nope, I accept the fact that God Almighty designed us as we are, as humans, from the beginning of time on this planet. He gave us these unique markers that no matter what other purpose they have, finger prints certainly reveal how special each one of us is.

Isaiah 49:16a “I (the Lord) have engraved you on the palms of my hands…”

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you…..”

Food for thought: What makes you different from anyone else? Do you embrace that which makes you unique or unlike others? Why or why not?

Fun Fact: Adermatoglyphia is a genetic condition that prevents fingerprints from forming. It is sometimes referred to as “immigration delay disease” because of the trouble it causes people trying to cross the border.

Photo by:  Mrs. Brown – Glass windows of fingerprints (via Pixabay)