In my last post I wrote that God is not only the creator of all things, but that all things have been made to reflect the glory of God in all his beauty, power and majesty. What we also discover is that God reveals himself to us as a good and purposeful creator. Genesis 1 tells us that when he created the world, everything was good. And he placed the first human beings, Adam and Eve at the very center of his creation in a garden to not just enjoy his creation, but to look after and care for creation under his loving care and rule (Gen.1:28-31). Unlike everything else in creation, human beings alone have been made in the image of God and given this glory and honor (Gen.1:27). It appears from the beginning that God actually made the world for us to live in and enjoy under his loving care and rule, where Adam and Eve lived as God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule.
In fact, we’re told in Psalm 8:3-8 that in all creation God actually has us on his mind i.e. he thinks of us and cares for us. The God who is the creator of the universe in all his glory, and in all the perfection of his beauty, power, majesty and greatness has you on his mind and cares for you. He has also given us as human beings the highest place of glory and honor placing us under him, but above his creation, to look after and care for his creation and world.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. Psalm 8:3-5
You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Psalm 8:6-8
This revelation that God has created us and our world with a purpose tells us that you and I are not the by-products of chance. God has not made us and left us to ourselves to discover our purpose in life. In fact, we are reminded that our lives are valuable, because God himself assigns and gives our lives value. In all that God has made, you are the single jewel in his crown. You are more valuable to him than the very universe. There is nothing in creation that compares to you in beauty, power, majesty and greatness. For the same God who declares his very glory in all creation in all the perfection of his beauty, power, majesty and greatness (Ps.19:1) now tells us here that you are more valuable that the very creation he has made. That must mean that as men and women made in the image of God we actually reflect his very glory above everything else in all his creation.
As our creator God has given our lives purpose, meaning, significance and value. And we find our real purpose and value when we begin to bring our lives under the loving care and rule of a God who has created us above all things, to reflect his glory in our lives, and has literally given us the world to enjoy.
