The Crown of Creation

Genesis 1:26-31

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. Genesis 1:26-31

Man is created in the image of God. No other animal can have this claim. There are those that say that they can see God in nature. Wrong. They may be able to see His fingerprints, but not God. Nature is made of up of animals, run by instinct and plants that just grow. Man alone holds the honor to be made in the image of God.

How does the Bible describe God’s features? Matthew 6:26 calls Him, “Heavenly father”- not too old. Psalm 57:1 mentions “His wings”- he is part chicken. John 15:1 tells us, “I am the true vine”- now he is part vegetable. Isaiah 17:10 describes God as “the Rock”- Now he is part mineral. Is this a good description of what we look like? I don’t think so.

The rest of creation functions in one of two ways. A tree is merely just physical. It has no thought process. A dog is both physical and has a soul, meaning that he can think to some degree. But man has not only the physical body, and the soul, but also the spirit. We have a morality that is in us that is in the image of God. This is the part of us that was lost in the fall of man, but is brought back to life when we come to Jesus.

He created them “male and female”. One thing to notice is the number of people created. When creating the rest of creation, God created in mass. The vegetation was created and covered the earth, the creatures of the sea were created and instantly the seas were teeming with them. The sky and the land were filled with herds and flocks.

But, when creating mankind, He started out with two. One male, and one female. He still works this way today. In Psalm 138 we read,

“For You created my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made”

This goes to show how much God cares for the individual. We are not just part of the herd. We are His special creation.

There is a distinct difference, “male and female”. Though we are both human, we are very different from one another socially, mentally, and physically. Sociologically speaking we tend to have little things that we do differently. If you ever get a chance to people watch on a high school campus, look at how the sexes tend to carry their books differently. The guys will cup the books in one hand and hang them down by their side, whereas the girls tend to cradle the books to their chests.

Here is a fun experiment to do. Stop reading for a moment and hold your right hand up and look at your fingernails. Really stop and do it. Now that you have done it, how did you look at your fingernails? If you are a gal, then you typically would have had the palm of your hand facing down away from you so you could look at your nails. But a guy will usually face the palm of his hand toward himself and curl his fingers in on top of the palm to look at his nails. Try this with the next ten people you see today and see if they don’t just naturally fall into the male and female way of doing things.

Mentally we find differences also. Men tend to rely on the left side of the brain, while women tend to use both sides. The end result is that women tend to be better communicators. You can see this in the sand box. Girl’s play tends to be conversational, while guys tend to be primitive, making guttural sounds and noises.

And then there is the physical aspect. All you have to do is look at the opposite sex and see that they are different. But more than the outer appearance, in every cell of our body we are different. Man has a different chromosome make up that is totally different from that of a woman. You see, God made male and female.

Then  God blesses them. The first blessing was for procreation. God wished for humans to multiply. We live in an age in which having children is not considered a great blessing. I read an article about Japan in which the birth rate is not high enough to replace the population. One town has gone as far as offering $5,000 for every child after three.

Global over-population is a big concern today. The problem with the idea that the earth is overpopulated is that is a little far fetched. If we were to gather all the people of the world together for a meeting and gave each person 9 square feet to stand in., you could put the entire population of the world in the state of Maine and still have over a third of the state left over. We are not in the huge crunch that people are saying we’re in.

God gave children to be a blessing in our lives. Psalm 127:3&4 says, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,… Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.” Don’t ever buy the lie that children are a burden or a pain. They are a gift from God. Don’t ever think that you are a burden or a pain. You are gift from God.

God also blessed humanity to have dominion over creation. But it seems that whatever God blesses, there seems to be an attack to subvert that blessing. In India we see that man is not the one who has the dominion, but rather the beast of the land. I recently read a study that said that India produces enough grain to feed their entire nation and still have enough to export. But, because the animals have such a high seat of honor, the cows on the street will be feed before the beggar in the gutter. This is what happens when man is away from God. The blessings of God get turned upside down.

God intended for man to rule over creation. Not in the destructive way that has been seen so visibly in the past century, but with care and concern. That is God’s desire.

You are the crown of God’s creation. Created to be more than just an animal. You are a child of God. The crown of His creation.

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