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It’s a summer evening, and I’m waiting to see them.  Any minute now. 

This is their time to appear—the magical margin between light and dark.  Twilight, like fairy dust, is settling in the shadows.  The last fiery streaks of the sunset are fading, the undersides of the clouds tinged with the misty purple of dusk.  All around me, I hear the chorus of nighttime creatures lifting their praise.  A tiny star winks at the swinging silver crescent of the moon.  

Yes, this is a good time.  And this is a good place—near the glow of the outdoor light in my front yard.  Its beams attract a plethora of insects each evening, thereby creating a smorgasbord for the creatures for whom I wait.  

The wind stirs, its whisper all around me, and a few more stars peek from behind the velvet curtain of the evening sky.  And then I see the first visitor—a frantically fluttering creature, cartoonishly pointed wings, zipping and bobbing and wildly zigzagging through the sky. 

The visitor swoops directly overhead, and as it soars above me, I can hear its unique chittering, squeaking noises.  It rushes upward, and now I see others, all just as frenetic in their activity, darker shapes against the darkening sky.  

Bats.  They’re a common sight in the summer nights, and they’re one of the most fascinating creatures on the planet.  To many people, bats are somewhat frightening, even foreboding.  They’ve been maligned as vampiric threats, carriers of disease, or creepy omens.  Yet these labels are undeserved; far from being malicious or sinister, bats are actually incredible creatures. 

First of all, they make very good neighbors.  They’re a natural form of pest control; an ordinary bat can consume as many as eight thousand insects every single night!  Because of that, bats are a great asset to farmers, reducing the need for costly and potentially harmful pesticides.  Furthermore, these creatures are excellent pollinators; over 450 commercial products and 80 medicines are made possible by the pollination efforts of fruit bats.  In fact, through their seed-dispersal role, bats are responsible for over 95% of rainforest regrowth!

There are so many more amazing attributes of these flying wonders that I could point out.  For example, how many other animals enjoy hanging upside-down?  Yet bats find it quite comfortable—sleeping, roosting, and even giving birth in that position!  Also, bats are one of a handful of animals that communicate through echolocation—basically the emitting of high-pitched sounds, most of which are above a human’s auditory range, and then using the reflection of those sounds to determine the proximity, whereabouts, and even density of nearby objects.  How impressive is that?  

However, the most fascinating aspect of bats is not their usefulness, or their uniqueness, or their capabilities.  It is simply their identity.  

You see, scientists have divided the animal kingdom into neat categories for classification:  mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, fish.  But bats?  Well, they just don’t fit neatly in any of these boxes.  

Technically, bats are considered mammals.  After all, they have hair on their bodies, they are warm-blooded, and they give birth to and nurse live young.  However, they’re different from other mammals in many ways, the most obvious being that they are the only mammals capable of flight.  They’re so unique that they have their own order—Chiroptera (literally “hand-wing”). 

Because of these disparities, some believe that bats are more like birds.  The argument for this point of view maintains that a bird with fur is no more preposterous than a mammal that flies.  Even the Bible classes bats with birds in Leviticus 11:13-19 (although this could have been merely a way of avoiding confusion in that culture). 

So, mammal or bird?  The answer is that bats have some characteristics of both, and they don’t align perfectly with either class.  And their contradictory nature baffles scientists, students, and nature lovers alike.  

So on summer nights, I’m left watching the bats, seeing them wheel at the edges of dusk, the gray space between day and night, between mammal and bird.  They’re odd little creatures—quirky and complicated and defiant of all attempts to neatly pigeonhole them.  And when I watch them, I feel a sympathy with them.  Because I understand what it’s like to not fit the mold.

This is a devotional, not a diary, so it’s not the place for me to relate how true this has been throughout my life.  But I can say that more times than not, I’ve stood with a foot in two worlds.  I was born on the blurry line between generations—too late to be a true millennial, but too soon to feel a kinship with Generation Z.  During my childhood, I didn’t share the same interests as most of my peers, and forging connections was difficult.  As an employee of the college I attended, I juggled the roles of both student and staff.  I always seemed to hover on the edges of social cliques, feeling a little bit awkward and a lot unsure.  

And I bet you’ve also felt the way I have—unsure of where you fit.  Perhaps, like me, you’ve gazed with longing on the world, where everyone seems to click nicely into their assigned roles with comforting ease.  But you know what?  The longer I watched that world, the more I realized that I’d never fit in—and I didn’t even want to.

You see, as Christians, we’re called to be counter-cultural.  Like the bats, we belong to two worlds.  First, there’s this earthly sphere—the place we live, the school we attend, the job we have, the life we know.  But our higher allegiance belongs to another world.  Because “our citizenship is in Heaven” (Philippians 3:20 ESV), we feel the tugging in our spirits for a place far beyond this world.  That’s why we’re urged to “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of [our] mind[s]” (Romans 12:2 ESV).  As Jesus promised, we are in the world—but we are not of it (John 15:19).

We don’t fit the pattern, and we weren’t even intended to—but that doesn’t stop us from trying, does it?  We make every effort to force ourselves into the world’s prescribed system.  But just as trying to categorize bats is frustrating, pigeonholing ourselves is tragically counterproductive.  

First of all, we can’t be reduced to a stereotype because we are uniquely designed by God.  It’s a truth that’s drummed into our heads often enough—church, Sunday school, inspirational wall art, even catchy bumper stickers and cleverly worded T-shirts.  But what if we let that truth permeate not just our heads, but our hearts?  That’s why David cried out in Psalm 139, “[Y]ou knitted me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (v. 13b-14 ESV).  Do you realize the impact these words carry?  God didn’t mass-produce you from a mold or slap you together on an assembly line.  He painstakingly, lovingly, attended to every detail of your body, mind, and spirit—all the traits and trademarks, all the flaws and features, that are you.  What’s more, each of these details was handpicked to equip you for the life He has planned for you to live.

And because you weren’t designed to fit in a box, you shouldn’t try to squeeze yourself into someone else’s.  We all have people we want to emulate—maybe we covet her appearance, or his confidence, or their level of physical fitness.  But God’s not interested in creating clones; He’s designed us to live as a community of individuals each as unique as a snowflake.  “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  If all were a single member, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, yet one body” (1 Corinthians 12:12, 19-20 ESV).  What a powerful image!  Without my role, small though it is, the entire body would be incomplete.  Your role and mine work in harmony together; neither of us would be effective alone.  It’s only when we embrace our differences—not comparing or coveting—that we are able to work in unison to share the message of Christ to the world.

We’ve been lovingly created.  We’ve been freed from comparison.  And lastly, we’ve been given an awesome calling.  Because God Himself is our designer and our Lord, we don’t have to abide by any expectations besides His.  

Paul knew this truth.  Now, if anyone ever had a right to feel as if they didn’t fit in, it was Paul.  A former Pharisee, he was renounced by his previous associates once he followed Christ.  But as an erstwhile persecutor, he was sometimes viewed with suspicion by the church.  Even some of the apostles disapproved of his ministry.  As if all that weren’t enough, his character and motives were frequently under attack from false teachers who sought to mislead new converts and undermine his teachings.  In fact, Paul wrote the book of Galatians to rebut the arguments against himself and the gospel.

Yet notice how Paul introduces himself in what must have been a very controversial book:  “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (Galatians 1:1 ESV).  Isn’t this remarkable?  He doesn’t flaunt his credentials.  He doesn’t seek to establish his allegiance to any particular faction.  He makes no effort to classify himself; indeed, he takes special pains to note that his credibility isn’t based in this world.  Instead, he points to Jesus Christ—the Source of his authority.  Devotional writer Christina Patterson muses about the ramifications for us:  “The work [Paul] would do for the Kingdom of God…was confirmed not because of what others thought of Paul but because God called him….If God is the one who calls you, what others say or don’t say does not define you.”  Undefined by the world.  What if we lived that way?  

My friends, like the bats, we’re complex creatures.  We’re all uniquely designed—works of art in a gallery, not rows of data on a spreadsheet.  And because of that, none of us will ever fit into one of the oversimplified boxes into which society would love to cram us.  But the liberating truth is this:  we don’t need to.  Rather than chase the false ideal of conformity, let’s be comfortable embracing our uniqueness.  And instead of comparing ourselves with someone else, let’s celebrate how God has designed us.  Because our identity is found in Christ and in who He has called us to be—not in the labels we can slap on ourselves.

So…are bats birds, or mammals?  The real answer is—it doesn’t matter.  A bat is simply a bat, specifically designed and gloriously prepared for the life it leads.  Wedging itself into a preprogrammed set of expectations doesn’t seem to be a priority for a bat.  So maybe, just maybe, it shouldn’t be for us either.  

Did you enjoy this post? What are some ways you can celebrate how God has made you unique? Let me know in the comments! Also, for the audio version of this blog, click here!

Want more information on bats? The bat facts in this blog were taken from BatWorld.org; click here to visit the site. Also, this video is a brief introduction to the fascinating science of echolocation; it even gives examples of several bat calls!