davidbowerkingwood

Life, an Amazing Reality!

I am continually amazed by the wonder of life; it is fascinating, for example, when I consider our cat, Abby, as she goes about her simple life of just being a cat. The word simple probably has no place in describing any life. Abby is a unique creation, although many cats have joined our household over the years not one of them has been exactly like Abby; she is different in important ways from every other cat that has ever been a member of our family.

Abby

Her life, like all life, is beyond our understanding; it is a gift that may seem so ordinary yet it has characteristics that cannot be duplicated by mankind in any laboratory or factory regardless of the money spent to create it.

Mankind, God’s Special Creation

In the Bible we read that creatures of the sea and air were created on the fifth day of creation by God speaking them into existence. Just as God had spoken His creation into existence on days one through four, He spoke these creatures into existence on day five. On day six we are told He spoke the land creatures into existence “and God saw it was good.”

Then in Genesis 1:26 a major change is made: “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

The first key point is the plurality of the Godhead. The words “us” and “our” are to me a strong, clear indication of the Trinity, the presence of Father, Son, and Spirit who had been specifically introduced in Genesis 1:2b “and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

The second key point in Genesis 1:26a is God’s decision to make man in His own image: “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” That is an unimaginably important distinction from all of His earlier acts of creation. This was something intended to set man apart from all else created; man would be a creation in the image and likeness of the Creator himself!

I’m absolutely certain that none of us can adequately grasp the full significance of that statement! Mankind, all of us, spring from a race created in the image and likeness of God! That alone should be a constant source of amazement and wonder and yet it is minimized or ignored by most people. How is it we can take such a monumental revelation for granted?

The Breath of Life

The third key point is brought out in the supplemental account of the creation of Adam in Genesis 2:7 where we read: “the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

Before the creation of man, God had spoken life into existence but with man God breathed life into man. Our life came from the breath of the Creator although our bodies are from the dust of the ground. As creations in the image and likeness of the Creator the true essence of who we are is eternal even though our bodies, created from the dust of the ground, are very mortal indeed. I have often mused over the fact that the only part of each other we can see is our mortal, sin cursed bodies, that specific part that cannot join us in heaven.

A New Eternal Body

While it is true that we will be given an eternal body not made with hands, that body is yet future and our present bodies of dust must traverse the aging process and eventually return to the dust from whence it came or be miraculously transformed at the Rapture.

In the second part of verse 26 we see that mankind was to have dominion over all the earthly components that had been created in days one through six: “and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

By the end of the sixth day God’s creative work was finished. We are told in Genesis 1:31, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning–the sixth day.”

Next week we will consider The Garden of Eden.