We Are Unique

All of us are different, all of us are unique

by Lee Jennings (revised, originally published in 2008)

Suitable for Whole School (Sec)

Aims

To consider the unique nature of every person.

Preparation and materials

• You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (Unique) and the means to display them.

• Optional: you may wish to use the YouTube video ‘Dove - evolution commercial’, in which case you will also need the means to show it. It is 1.14 minutes long and is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hibyAJOSW8U
  

Assembly

1. Have you ever thought about how amazing our bodies are? Take some time to look around; as we look at each other, we can see just how different we all are. Here are some amazing facts about our bodies.
   
   Show Slide 2.

   Did you know?
   
   - It takes 43 muscles to frown, but only 17 muscles to smile. Maybe we should smile more!
   - On average, we blink around 25 times per minute.
   - Our left lung is smaller than our right lung so that it can fit in with our heart.
   - Around 50,000 cells will have died and been replaced by the time I finish this sentence.
   - In a square of skin measuring 2.5 cm², we have 1,300 nerve cells, 3 million normal cells and 100 sweat glands.

2. Show Slide 3.

   Did you know that the average body has enough:
   
   - sulphur to kill all the fleas on an average dog
   - carbon to make 900 pencils
   - potassium to fire a toy cannon
   - fat to make seven bars of soap
   - phosphorus to make 2,200 match heads

3. Show Slide 4.

   Did you know?
   
   - We burn 26 calories in a one-minute kiss!
   - Every person has a unique fingerprint.
   - Every person has a unique tongue print.

4. Optional: you may wish to use the YouTube video ‘Dove - evolution commercial’. It is 1.14 minutes long and is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hibyAJOSW8U
   

5. Our bodies are amazing, and there are many theories as to how they evolved. I am going to read you an extract from a poem from the Bible. The extract is about how amazing our bodies are, and expresses the belief that God created each person individually. It was written about 3,500 years ago – well before X-rays and stethoscopes!

   Psalm 139, verses 13-16
   For you created my inmost being;
   You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
   I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
   My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place,
   When I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
   Your eyes saw my unformed body;
   All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

   We all have very different and unique bodies, but what is more important is what we are like on the inside. Christians believe that God created each of us uniquely and equally, and that he loves us just as we are.

Time for reflection

Let’s never let people put us down because of who we are or what we look like. Each of us is unique and special. There is something in this world that only we can do. God loves you as you are and after all, the world would be a very boring place if we were all the same!

Prayer
Thank you, God, that we are all different, all unique.
Help us to appreciate the differences between us.
Please help us to enjoy the variety in the world.
Help us to work with people we find difficult.
Help us never to make judgments based on what people look like.
Help us to respect everyone, and so gain their respect.
Amen.

Song/music

‘God who made the earth’ (Come and Praise, 10)