I have in my hands an egg? Look at it. It’s good egg.
What do you think is inside this egg? Well, there is a baby something that might hatch soon. What do you think it might be? (Ask children?)
A baby bird? A chicken? What else? A baby lizard or a baby snake? What else could be inside?
What sort of thing might come from an egg? Something that flies? Or crawls? What do you think? (Responses)
What if I said that inside this egg was a platypus? Do you know what a platypus is like? What does a baby platypus do? Fly? Crawl like a snake? Does anyone know?
Now if a baby bird comes out of any egg what does it do? (Responses) And how do the baby bird know what to do? I wonder!
If a baby platypus comes out of the egg what does it do? Fly? No! Sing like a bird? No! Crawl like a snake? No!
When a baby platypus comes out it first of all crawls a little way, with its mother’s help, to a special hole in its mother’s tummy. That hole is called a pouch. It is like a nest inside mummy. And it is safe there.
Then it needs to get food. How does that happen? Does it chase worms like its mother? No! It sucks on its mummy’s skin. Yes, it sucks on mummy’s skin and the milk comes through its mother’s skin into it flat little mouth.
Then it learns to swim with its funny feet that look like duck’s feet. But it is not really a duck is it? It is a platypus and knows what a platypus has to do swim fast and live when things chase it.
But how does a platypus know what to do to be a platypus? How does the baby platypus know what to do? Why doesn’t it act like a duck? Or a frog? Why?
Well, you see, God puts into each baby in each egg a special something that tells that baby what to do when it comes out? What do you think that something is? A mobile phone? A map? A voice?
Well, that something is like a voice. God puts into a baby platypus a tiny brain and in that brain there is a signal that says, ‘Time to suck on mummy’s tummy’, or ‘Move your legs like this and swim.’ And the platypus sucks and swims. The signal inside guides the baby.
God has placed in everything its own special something, like a voice that tells it what to do. So a platypus does not sing like a bird. And a bird does not swim like a platypus. Each one has its own thing inside, put there by God, to teach it what to do and how be a bird or a platypus.
And inside you there is a voice that tells you how to be a boy or a girl. If you think a voice tells you to fly you know it is not really a girl voice or a bird voice. Each of you has inside you that something that makes you a girl or a boy, makes you special, makes you different from a platypus. And that is a special gift from God.
Would you like to be a platypus? No! Of course, not! You have the voice inside that makes you a girl or a boy. And that is just as amazing as being a platypus.
Prayer: Thank you God for putting in each creature a voice that teaches it how to be what it is. And thank you for giving each of us the special voice inside that makes us girls and boys. Amen.