How many times have you ever felt like your life just doesn’t mean anything? How many times have you said to yourself, “I just don’t know what my purpose is in life; it seems like nothing I do has meaning.” I promise you, if you’ve said this or anything of the sort, you are not alone. Millions of people today feel insignificant in life, but they don’t have to! What if I could share with you five simple reasons from Genesis 1 and 2 that show that human beings are the most important creatures in all of the universe? Would you start to look at yourself a little differently? Well let’s get started:
1) God breathed the breath of life in his nostrils.
“When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up… the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”
– Genesis 2:5-7
In the detailed account of biblical creation, we find God fashioning and forming many things; however, the act of breathing life into a creature is found exclusively in humans! Though every land creature that walks on the earth was created in the same day as man, man alone was given the gift of a spirit. God did this for no other part of creation. It means that God took special, personal interest in the creation of human beings. He imparted part of himself, his breath, into his newly created man.
2) God created humankind “male and female.”
“So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.”
– Genesis 1:27
Though gender was clearly present in all animals, gender is only specified in the text for humans. I know this will not sit well with the transgender crowd, but gender is a gift from God and shows our self significance. The very next words from the mouth of God following this poetic excerpt is that the newly formed male and female humans are to go and populate the earth. Without two genders being created and maintained, this would be impossible. Many today, Christians included, struggle with the reality of gender identification. Some feel that they have been born in the wrong body or are just the opposite sex internally rather than externally. God’s word makes it clear that he created both male and female in humans for a purpose, and this kind of attention was given only to them. Christians ought to rejoice in their gender and celebrate how God has designed them, for Scripture clearly identifies both male and female as worthy of great honor.
3) God gave man and woman dominion over the whole created order.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
– Genesis 1:26-27
The word is clear; human beings are the stewards of the created world. Some scientists today (and I am not discrediting all science) are convinced that human beings are at the top of the food chain for the simple fact that dinosaurs were wiped out and homo sapiens were given the chance to take over now that the large predators were gone. This is not entirely the case. I am convinced that the word of God explains that humans were created with a higher intelligence level and design that surpasses all other created beings so that we, the image of God, can rule over and take care of God’s “good” creation. This is not to say that we have the biblical allowance to go and fight dogs like many heartless people do today; rather, it’s that we are to care for God’s creation while he is away, much like a gardener cares for the crops and livestock while the owner of the farm is out.
4) The man and woman were created “in the image of God.”
“So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.”
– Genesis 1:27
I know I quoted that verse twice, but I feel like it deserves to be quoted more than that. Though scholars are still debating exactly what being in God’s image means, there are some very good theories. Some suggest that it means that we look like God, though I disagree because the Scripture is clear that God is not a man and he is a spirit being; anytime you see a biblical writer mentioning something like God’s hands, such as when God reached down and touched the lips of Isaiah with a piece of coal, they were simply doing the best to describe their experience by applying to God a human attribute. This is called anthropomorphism (yeah, that’s a big word). My personal opinion on being in God’s image is that we possess a conscious, a spirit, and a natural desire to do what is right. If we were simply the product of evolution alone, why do we risk our lives and jump into a lake to save a drowning child when it’s all about the “survival of the fittest”? The answer is because we bear the “image” of our creator and represent him in our bodies, lives, and consciousnesses.
5) Humanity is the final and central act of creation.
Genesis 1 is a chronological order of God’s creation, and we find humans being the final fashioned piece of all the universe; Genesis 2 is a concentration of the creation of man which sets the stage for the rest of the entire bible. Have you ever heard of someone taking a sabbatical? Well, the first person to ever take one was God himself! And guess what, before taking his big day of rest (which later became the sabbath), but after creating every single thing in the physical universe, God got his hands dirty and created humans from the soil of his perfectly created earth. Think about this, God made most everything else by just speaking it into existence (“Let there be light!”), but instead of doing that for humans, God came to the garden and formed man from the dirt with his own hands. No other creation account in any other religion has a god or gods getting this intimate with creating humans; most were mere accidents if you read the accounts! But instead, our God became personal and created us as the climax of all creation. Isn’t that wonderful to know?
So how should we look at ourselves after seeing the reality of Scripture? It’s my opinion, and I believe God share my opinion in this, that we ought to see ourselves as very important creatures that have a purpose in life. No other creature shares the attention or specifics that God gave us during his creation deeds. This is not to say that we ought to be boastful or arrogant; if anything, this ought to make us more humble and thankful that we were given such a great honor. So next time you are feeling down in the dumps because you can’t seem to find a good reason for your life, just remember, you are the culmination of all creation.
Have a blessed day.
– Joshua
