Hennie Symington

What are human beings, that you think of them;

    mere mortals that you care for them?

Yet you made them inferior only to yourself;

    you crowned them with glory and honour,

You appointed them rulers over everything you made;

you placed them over all creation. Psalm 8:4-7

In response to a question about what makes man unique in creation a list of negative and positive attributes immediately comes to mind. Among all the creatures in creation, man is the only being that is aware of his status as a human being and who has the knowledge of good and evil. He alone has the ability to speak and the freedom to do what he wills. He has, amongst others, the capability of creating weapons of mass destruction and acting wilfully to threaten the existence of mankind.

Let’s look at the book of Genesis. Although it can easily be shrugged off as myths and legends in our post modern culture, a couple of surprising truths about the origin of mankind emerge from this book. Firstly, man is unique and is set apart from the plant and animal kingdom. Paul confirms this many centuries later when he writes: “And the flesh of living beings is not all the same kind of flesh; human beings have one kind of flesh, animals another, birds another and fish another” 1 Corinthians 15:39. God himself makes an important distinction in Genesis when he says: “And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us. They will have power over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild, large and small …” Genesis 1:26. This is a unique statement on the uniqueness of mankind. Just as God rules over creation, so he created man and appoints him to rule over creation.

Despite the modern view of some that man is as insignificant as “a piece of gum under the shoe of the universe” (as one cynical scientist put it!), God ranks us pretty high up in the natural order of the universe. In fact, he rates us almost up there with the heavenly beings. In the book of Job we discover something about the uniqueness of human beings. He says “it is the spirit of Almighty God that comes to human beings and gives them wisdom” Job 32:8. By breathing his breath into us, God shared with us the ability to become co-creators of the universe. Like God we have the ability to create with word or deed or an attitude, to either serve creation or condemn it. If this is true, how then does our similarity to God find expression in our daily lives? Do I use my god-given gifts to make or break the world I live in? Think about that.

Prayer: Lord, it is indeed a sublime thought that we are co-workers and jointly responsible for your creation. That is more than humans could ever dream of. Let me therefore do my share to make the world a better place with deeds of love and compassion. Amen