The Breath of Life: Genesis 2:4-7

We are created to act like God and care for the creation around us.  God calls us to protect the world.  He calls us to make decisions to help the world prosper.  He wants us to demonstrate our love for Him as we care for what His hands have made.  

God makes Adam.  It is here in these verses we can see how humanity is the jewel of creation.  The world was made, but there was nobody to tend it.  There was nobody to work the ground.  The creation existed, but there was nobody to help give it purpose.

Creation was made for humanity, but humanity was also made for creation.  This goes back to the idea of dominion.  We are the jewel of creation, but that does not give us permission to do what we want with creation.  We were made to work the ground.  We were made to help creation reach its purpose.  Creation was made for us, but only so we could symbiotically work with creation to help it reach its potential.

This concept is strengthened by the analysis of how God made mankind.  God made us out of dust.  Our elements are nothing more than dry ground.  We are not made from incredibly rare elements that can only be found in us.  We are made from the same stuff the rest of the world is made from.  It is not our chemical composition that makes us special.

God takes that dry earth and breathed life into it.  God gives life to His creation.  This is what makes life special and unique.  We are nothing more than oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and some other trace elements.  All these elements are found plentifully in creation.  They are also found plentifully in the rest of the universe.  What is not found in the rest of creation and the rest of the universe is the breath of God.  God shaped us, but we did not live until He breathed life within us.  God made us, but we didn’t have a spirit until God gave it to us.

Returning to the idea of humanity being made for creation, consider how God breathing into humanity reinforces this idea.  God is our creator.  He watches over us and helps us find that which completes us.  We are made in His image.  Life comes to us quite literally through His breath.  If God helps us reach our potential and we are made in His image and with His breath, then we are made to help creation reach its potential.

In the creation story, God models our calling for us.  He wants us to care for creation.  He wants us to help it become the best it can be.  He wants us to play a role in this because it is the role He played in our creation.  We are created to act like God and care for the creation around us.