How Do I See Myself and the People Around Me?
Whether we realize it or not, what we think about the origins of human life can have a dramatic effect on how we view ourselves and others. If I think I’m just an evolved animal, or going further back, just an accidental blob of chemicals that happened to come together in the right way, what reason do I have to think that there’s much value to my life? Or what about the people around me?
On a sinister scale, views of human life as just being an evolutionary accident, no different than an animal or the chemicals that make us all up, have been used to justify atrocities against entire races and groups of people. While I may not identify with that, what about in smaller ways in my daily life?
What about those people I have to wait in line behind at the Kwik Trip as I try to quickly stop for a doughnut on the way to work? If I think of them as just other accidental blobs of chemicals that happen to be in my way, I might degrade them in my mind as I watch them slowly put their wallet back away instead of quickly grabbing their stuff and moving out of my way. What about people that have some skills of abilities that I am in need of? I might think of them just as tools to be used. Or what about people that I find attractive? If I think of them as attractive, accidental arrangements of chemicals, I might think of them simply as objects that are there to be seen.
When I have a low view of human life, it’s easy just to see others as nuisances in my way or as a way to get what I want. But are we just accidental arrangements of chemicals, that beat incredible odds in coming together just right, or are we something more?
Made in His Image
As I’ve written here on this blog many times, I believe that the evidence from the fine tuning of the universe and our amazing planet, along with the start of life from non-life itself, makes a very strong case for a designer of it all. The odds against it just happening by accident are astronomical. I believe that it took a creator, it took God to bring about life and ultimately human life. The Bible says that humanity is special. It says that God made all living things on Earth and then as a culmination, he made human beings.
Genesis 1 says
Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:26-27
God created human being as special. He created us in his image. I don’t claim to know exactly what all that means but it means that in some senses we are like him. You and I bear the image of God. Every person we see in our daily lives bears his image. That means that they are special and have great value and worth, just as you do.
I realized that while I believe that, I need to remind myself of it more often., throughout my day. Whether someone irritates me or pleases me, I need to remind myself that there in front of me is a valuable human being who is made in God’s image. They’re not an accident, they have great value and worth.
Not only did God create human beings in his image, he later became one of us in his Son, Jesus Christ, further showing the worth and value he has placed on us. So don’t let anyone tell you that you’re not special and valuable and don’t let yourself think that of anyone else.
