“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars…What is man that thou art mindful of him?”
Psalm 8
I suppose if you believe a mindless, random series of vibrational accidents occurred and our universe is the result, then there is no real purpose in thinking about humanity at all. We are but the natural outgrowth of one of the countless times in which stray amino acids combined themselves in chains. If this is so, then all is as it should be. We are what we are and could never be anything different. Therefore, the idea of right and wrong, or good and evil should never arise as they are irrelevant.
However, a philosophy professor at Oxford proposed that all human beings have a strange, uniquely human idea. We have a kind of law of right and wrong that we did not make up, yet cannot be rid of, and this law continually presses upon us. We know the law; still, we break the law. These two things, he says, are the key to all clear thinking in the universe.
It seems that humanity is either a random meaningless combination of vibrating energy arranged by chance, or we are a purposeful, unique creation. The middle ground smacks of muddled thinking, contorted compromise, and self-deception.
Needless to say, how the universe came about has occupied minds, great and small for all time. Science may, one day, answer the question of how—some say it already has—but science will never answer the question of why the universe exists. It is not equipped to answer it.
What is man? To answer that is to answer why the universe exists.
Some Christians believe that the Creation happened for no other purpose than to act as a
backdrop for divine-human interaction. Perhaps this is what Shakespeare meant when he wrote that all the world is a stage, and everyone has a part to play.
God, because He is love, is creative by nature. In love, He created beings, like Himself who are capable of freely returning His love. Being made free, they are also capable of denying love.
When you see the stars or hear the rolling thunder of God’s power throughout the universe, it is God’s calling us to a loving relationship. That God is mindful of us and calls to us is a wonder until you come to know God. Once you know Him, you come to realize that, while God will not always strive with man, it is not in Him to be without mercy and grace towards any who seek it.
People scoff at the term “religion”, without knowing it means to discipline your focus. Christianity has one object as its focus—God. It has two ways to demonstrate that focus.
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind…Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Love God with all you’ve got and love your neighbor in the same manner as you love yourself. We are capable of this and that is why God cares about us.
Maranatha
