You Are an Endangered Species

You Are an Endangered Species

by Glenn Coggeshell III/Malachi/The Artist ONE

Ever think about this? You are an endangered species.

No, seriously—you are the only one of you that has ever existed in the history of the universe. There is no copy. No clone. No replacement waiting in the wings. And yet, somehow, this reality doesn’t seem to carry the weight it should.

I’ve always found it curious: we talk about animals on the brink of extinction all the time. It’s right there in the headlines and science journals. We cry out for the whales, the rhinos, the bees—and rightly so. We’ve cataloged over 166,000 species on the IUCN Red List, and more than 46,000 of those are threatened with extinction. That includes nearly half of all reef-building corals and 41% of amphibians. In the U.S. alone, 1,300 species are listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

But where is the list for people?

Where is the alarm for the individual soul? When did we stop seeing each other as sacred and rare?

Did you know it’s a federal offense to even possess a bald eagle’s feather? The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act makes it illegal to disturb or collect them, and if you do, you could be fined up to $100,000 and spend a year in prison. Do it again, and the penalties go even higher. That’s the value we’ve placed on a bird. And again, rightfully so.

But what’s the value of a person?

Where is the law that protects you from being trampled by someone else’s rage or negligence or power? We see people get stomped out on the nightly news—over traffic, fast food orders, or senseless arguments. Fights break out in parking lots and food courts. Someone gets kicked in the head with enough force to kill them—and no one stops to consider: that person was the last of their kind. A one-of-one. And now they’re gone forever.

I guess that’s why Jesus had to narrow it down for us.

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind… and… love thy neighbour as thyself.” Matthew 22:36-40 KJV

On these two commandments hang all the rest. Why? Because when you truly love God and your neighbor, you begin to see life as sacred. You start to understand the weight of your own soul and the soul next to you.

And maybe that’s what’s missing. Maybe people act the way they do because they’ve forgotten (or never been told) that they are priceless. Maybe the reason violence is so easy is because we’ve been taught life is cheap. Wars rage on—generation after generation. Gang leaders, dictators, and even so-called democratic powers decide who lives and who dies, without thought to the universal loss that happens with each soul taken.

You’ve seen the movies about time travel, right? The big rule is: Don’t change the past. Don’t alter a single detail—you might unravel everything. We treat the timeline with more care than we treat a living person standing right in front of us.

That needs to change.

Because once we grasp how uniquely valuable each life is, we might think twice before attacking each other—verbally, emotionally, physically, or politically. We might finally start minding our own business and letting people be. Letting them live. Not just as part of a nation, but as individual miracles with the right to breathe, to dream, to build, to exist.

But here’s the kicker: If we truly believed every person was one-of-a-kind, it would demand a response not just from us—but from governments, corporations, and systems. It would mean fewer laws to control and more support to set people free. It would mean honoring the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and yes—even the Ten Commandments—as the only true framework needed for a just and loving society.

Final Thought

If someone told you they were the last of their kind, would you treat them differently? Would you speak softer? Listen longer? Be slower to anger?

Because the truth is: Every person you meet is the last of their kind. Handle with care.

“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee…” —Jeremiah 1:5 KJV

“What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” —Psalm 8:4 KJV