Different

Have you ever created something? Maybe when you were a kid, you sculpted an elephant out of Play-Doh or built a city out of building blocks? Granted, when it was finished, you probably stepped back and admired all your creation, but surely there was one part that stood out to you from all the rest. One aspect of your work that you were most proud of.

We all know that God is a Creator. I mean, “He created the earth and everything in it” is not typically new knowledge for most people. We’ve been learning that since Sunday school!

If God created the earth and everything in it (which included all the different kinds of animals and humans), we must ask ourselves, why are we so special? What makes me and you different from our pet dog or fish?

In the biblical account of Creation from Genesis chapter one, in a single week God created everything that we see today out of nothing, and each day, after stepping back and surveying His work, God nodded approvingly and saw that it was good. And so, the pattern continued for five days, God speaking life and creating a new thing, then seeing that it was good.

But on the sixth day, all that changed.

“Let us make a man in our image, after our likeness….so God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (v.26 and 27.) Prior to the creation of man, God had said, “Let there be” and it was. “Let there be lights” and “let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds.”

But when He created man, God specifically said, “Let us make.”

This, my friends, was the flourishing finish of creation.

This was the final touch of the Creator’s masterpiece.

And, I think it’s worth mentioning that in Genesis 2:7 it says, “Then, the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

The Bible never says that God breathed “the breath of life” into the rest of His creation. The other animals were clearly alive, but not in the same spiritual sense that mankind is.

Don’t get me wrong; God LOVES the rest of His creation, which is clearly shown when Jesus mentions in Matthew 6 the care God bestows on the sparrows and lilies.

But from the beginning, God has set apart man so that He could have a relationship with him, and He could be his God.

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

God loved you and me that much to send his only Son to die for us.

Jesus died for people.

Not any other living creature that He has made.

Jesus took on a human form when He came to earth to die for the world.

God chose humans to be His chosen people.

The Creator loves all His creation and took intricate care when creating each new thing.

But humans, we are His chosen, prized portion of Creation. We are the part in the masterpiece which upon stepping back and seeing His work, He calls us his beloved.

For that is what we are.

This article was originally published for the Creator issue of Oh Beloved One magazine.