God doesn’t make junk. Let me put that another way. Everything that God makes, everything He does, He does excellently, and that includes the way He made you and me.
The other day I was pondering the diversity and originality of God’s creation and I Googled “weird animals”. Some very interesting photos came up. In the collage here, you see just a tiny sampling.
There is something called a sea dragon, which resembles a seahorse with leaves, a couple of photos of things called nudibranchs which are sea slugs that have no shells but seem to come in an endless variety of colors and patterns, and finally you have the common giraffe which upon closer examination doesn’t seem common at all. In fact, I personally give giraffes about an eight on the weird-o-meter. I look at giraffes and the first question that comes to my mind is “Why?”
And yet as wonderful as these creations are, it says in Genesis 1:26-28 that man was to be the crown of His creation, made in the image or likeness of God Himself! And not only were we meant to carry His image, but He also intended for us to rule over the rest of His creation.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Sadly, rather than rule, we chose to rebel and so we fell from grace and became the disfigured and broken wanderers that we are today.
Still, it doesn’t mean that we are ruined, broken beyond repair. We are still not junk. We have just become…contrary. And it’s not just us that were affected. All of those amazing animals in that picture, and all there weren’t room for in the picture, all creation in fact fell right along with us and suffer right along with us. In Romans 8:22,23 we read:
“For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”
All creation groans, waiting for the day, but all still possess and manifest what God created them with that makes them so unique and special. And even mankind still possesses those God given attributes that make us His crowning creation. Somewhat tarnished, scuffed and dented perhaps, a little (okay, a lot) worse for wear, but He who made us is more than able to make us as good as, or even better than new.
Paul wrote in Romans 12:1-5
Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
So maybe we’re born a little spiritually and morally challenged. Maybe we have been hurt and have experienced rejection and mockery. And maybe it’s made you angry and resentful, and retaliative. So how is that working out for you? Let me guess. Not too well?
I heard an old churchy saying more times than I would have chosen to, but it turns out true, nevertheless. It goes, “God’s will done God’s way, gets God’s blessings.”
I urge you today. Try following the instructions found here in Romans 12. Present yourself to God. Give Him time for some spiritual reconstructive surgery.
Find out where you fit in the body and what your function is as a member. Find out who God made you to be, and you will realize beyond any doubt that not only are you not junk, but you are someone quite unique and special and you makes us all better by your presence.
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