Photo by Greg Rakozy
By Mike Chaffin
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.” Genesis 1:26
Every time I read the creation story in Genesis 1 I am awed by God’s creative power and His ordered wisdom. In six days, God created the universe, then earth and its atmosphere, separated land from water and caused vegetation to grow. He then created the stars, the sun and moon. After that he created sea life and birds. Finally on the sixth day God created every other living animal that lives on ground and then created man.
He not only created man male and female, He created us in His image, in the very likeness of God and He placed us as the dominate creation on Earth.
God created chaos out of nothingness, then put it all in order. His order gave man authority over everything else on Earth. We may rule over the creatures of the Earth, but we are not above God, and we don’t have authority over the rest of creation. Thankfully, God is still in control.
We have never been in control of anything still in God’s domain. He tells us in Job that we have no control over the weather, wind currents or the heavens. Earthquakes and volcanoes are His.
Paul tells us in Romans the Earth will be renewed just as we are when we receive our glorified bodies at Jesus’ returns.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Romans 8:20-22
Confirming Paul’s teaching, John sees the new heaven and earth in his vision of the Revelation. We may have trouble wrapping our heads around how earth will be restored after it is nearly destroyed. However, like God told Abraham when He said Sarah was going to give birth at ninety years old, “Is there anything too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14) Our answer should be a resounding, “No, there is nothing too hard for God.” Something to remember and build our faith.
Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you. I am in awe of your mighty power. You spoke the universe into existence. We are a mere breath and then are gone from here to spend eternity with you if we are yours, or in hell if we are not. Help me to live for you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
* There is a website that conducted a search for Bible verses. They compiled a list of the verses in order of the magnitude of hits they got in their search. Some of these verses qualify as ‘people’s favorites’, while others might be on the list because they are some of the most important and most teachable words of God.
