Thankful For Being Created

 Remember that through this month we are trying to stay faithful to the definition of thanksgiving.  It is to give gratitude to God for what He has given us.  Today, I want to talk about one that I believe is overlooked greatly.  The fact that He has even created us.

I think all of us at one point in time have wondered why we even exist or why are we even placed in this world.  We ask ourselves, “Why did God even bother?  Why did He even create mankind?”  The answer is in the very beginning in the book of Genesis.  In Genesis 1 it says, 

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is ]life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

There are many things I want us to focus on in this passage that I think that we have a tendency to miss.  First, look at verse 26.  God said that man was to be made in His image and His likeness (the Us and Our is representative of the trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)!  Think about it for a second, not only did God form us in His image, but also His likeness.  That means that our emotions, our feelings, our inner nature when first created was in the very spitting likeness of God.  Of course, due to the fall, the sin nature came into our life and ended the perfection, but there are still facets of us that God knit together to make us like Him!  God did this because He wanted a creation that He could relate too!  God did not want to have mindless zombie robots that only give Him service because that’s how they were programmed to be or forced to be.  No!  There is no meaning behind that.  Think about this principle for a minute and you can understand just how precious your very creation is to God.  Would you prefer someone to love you because they were forced to love you or would you prefer someone to love you because they choose to love you?  Of course we want someone who chooses to love us out of their own heart!

He created us for that!  We get the awesome privilege to choose to love Him and show our love towards Him.  The beautiful thing, He shows His love towards us.  In creation itself, He showed His love for us.  Have you ever thought about this.  God is God.  What does that mean?  It means He is perfect and whole.  God doesn’t need the enjoyments and beauty that we do.  Do you realize that He created this world for us?  In verses 29-30 God gave us literally everything.  He spoke everything into existence and then handed it over to us.  Why?  It wasn’t because we deserved it.  We didn’t do anything at all at that time to deserve it.  God did it because He loves us and it was an awesome way that He showed His love towards us.  What an awesome thing to be thankful for!  God gave us all of creation.  We should thank Him for what He gave us.  When was the last time you even thought about that and gave thanks to Him for that?  The next time you see the beautiful world around you, remember He created it for you and whisper a prayer of thanksgiving unto Him.

My favorite part of this passage is verse 31 though.  It’s my favorite for one simple reason and one simple word….very.  Look back at the rest of chapter 2.  Have you ever noticed how when God finished creating each day, He said that He saw that it was good.  All the other days were just good.  Look at the end of verse 31 though.  After He finished it all and created mankind and gave all to mankind, He then proclaims, “it’s very good.”   We are the apple of His eye!  The next time you are down on yourself, the next time you feel like you are a failure and no one cares for you, remember that God loves you so much that He will give you the literal world!

We should give thanks to God because of creation because He had a direct hand in our own creation.  YOU ARE NOT AN ACCIDENT!  YOU ARE NOT a jumbled up hodge podge of cellular material that happened to be thrown together when sperm hit an ovum and boom you were created.  No, no, no my friends.  Even in the miracle of that process, God has a hand.  Scientists and medical doctors today are still in awe of the whole reproductive processes in themselves.  Why then do we so casually toss this aside?  Human life has value and is special in the sight of God because He creates each and every one of us.  

Psalm 139:13-14 says,

13  For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.

14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made!  As the NIV puts it, we are knit together in our mother’s womb!  He formed our inward parts!  God loves us and He creates us and we should praise Him and thank Him for that.

Now, some may raise the question, “But Josiah, what about those born with defects or stillborn?’

I want to be honest and say that from what I read from Scripture, I have an opinion but I still do not fully know.  I’m not fully God and that mystery is still a mystery to me even though I can draw some reasoning in the pages of Scripture.  One is the fact that we are now fallen creatures and due to the consequence of sin, death, things like defects and stillborns occur.  We have to understand that the consequence was death in whole.  When we were first created, we were genetically perfect but when we sinned and God had to be just and keep His judgement of death to come upon us because of sin, then death in all things took its process.  Science itself testifies of this in the term, entropy.  All things are proven to be in a form of decay.  That is because of the consequence of sin upon the world.  However, another amazing thing I have seen through things like defects as well has been the glory given to God.  Some of the most faithful I have ever met have been those that were born with what man deems as disadvantages.  However, I have begun to look at them as blessings.  Do you want an example?  Look up David Ring when you get a chance.  Some of his videos are on Youtube.  He was supposed to be dead according to the doctors but read about his life, what he has done, and what he is doing for the Lord.

So my friends, on this day, let us give thanks that God has given us life itself and creation in itself.  

Thank you Lord for being the Creator!