We are God’s treasures to create good

Have you ever questioned: why humans? What motivated God to give us life and meaning?

King David did and captured the question. “When I consider Your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Psalm 8:4-5).

Why is God mindful and caring toward us? I imagine King David climbing one of the many craggy hills around Jerusalem’s ancient city. Sitting down and looking out at a crystal-clear night, small village fires burning below, a glorious sky blazing above. Authoring the Psalm in his mind, “what is mankind?”

I sat with my family last week at Christina Lake, necks craned toward the night sky. We enjoyed a game: the first person to spot a shooting star.

One or two tried to fake seeing a shooting star, quickly realizing it was a satellite. The shrieks were heartfelt as a real shooting star streaked the inky sky.

Seeing a shooting star is like witnessing a whale arch out of the ocean as sounds of wonder erupt from the boat in perfect harmony.

“It is good,” that’s what God said in the first two chapters of Genesis: the light is good, the water is good, the land is good, the sun, moon and stars are good, and the animals are good.

I must agree with the author of the creation story, and God said, “it is very good.” Back to the question, why humans?

In the creation story, humans were infused with the Spirit of God, the breath of God. We are called to relate to God and partner with him in creation and called to continue creating good. The project to care for the world and bring goodness both to creation and humanity is not over.

As believers, we are called to model a loving, creative, intelligent, loyal, and faithful way of living and treating others and the world in that way. Our lives acknowledge God as the source of goodness. We all have something unique to give, a purpose to fulfil.

How? In the ordinary, finding the divine in the every-day routine, through your home, your parenting, your place of business. The Christian should find the hand of God in everything.

As Phillips Brooks, the Bishop of Massachusetts (1835-1893) said: “The Christian finds the hand of Christ in everything, and by the faithful use of everything for Christ’s sake, he takes firm hold of that hand of Christ and is drawn nearer and nearer to Himself. That is, I think, the best method of promoting spiritual life.”

What are human beings? We are God’s treasures to create good.

Phil Collins is pastor at Willow Park Church Kelowna.