The Outing Was Not Bad

We were at work. The weather was terribly hot, about the hottest in decades. Our central air conditioner had broken down for a while. There were no fans. Approval had to be sought from the top management to install some. And none of the managers had thought of placing an order for fans. They always hoped that the engineers would come around and rectify the central air conditioner. But they never came because no one requested for them. And so, we had to keep the doors open this particular night, to get some fresh air from outside the office.

When the station was closed for the night, one of my workmates said to me there was something that had baffled her for a while and that since I am a Christian, she believed I would have an answer to her query. I said I was all ears.

She said: “Everyday people go to sleep. They wake up. They thank God for waking up safely. They appreciate God for loving them. They tell God it is because of Him they are alive. They sing praises to God. And they worship God because they believe He is good to them.

But lower animals like goats, hens and cattle also go to sleep and wake up too. They do not thank God for loving them. They do not pray to God for a better tomorrow. They do not appreciate God. They probably don’t even know that God exists. They don’t do God, even if it is in their own way of life in the animal kingdom. But they still sleep and wake up, oblivious of the fact that God kept them alive, as Christians would believe.” And then came the bombshell: “does God actually exist or does he exist only in the imagination of men?”

I was miffed that so many people need to understand and appreciate God better. I had to explain to her that Jesus answered the question when he taught his disciples.

The fact of the matter is that God loves everything he created. The flowers, the birds, the animals and all, he loved them. But God had a very special love for man and so, he gave man dominion over all other creatures. In other words, man has a very special relationship with God which is different from God’s relationship with the smaller creatures.

In the first Chapter of the Book of Genesis, verses 24 to 26: God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.”

And it was so.
God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Matthew 6:25-34 paints the illustration more vividly.

Jesus advises his followers: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

It is in this context that I would like to share my observation about people in our modern society who have a tendency to see themselves as the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega in every of their relationships. Such people should realise that in life, most of us fall into the category of “middlemen”. We are neither the tallest nor the shortest. We are neither the richest nor the poorest. We are neither the most brilliant nor the dullest. We are neither the biggest nor the smallest. We are neither the most beautiful nor the ugliest. We must find ourselves somewhere in the middle of creation. That is normal. That is human.

There is no doubt that God loved His creations deeply. But his relationship with man was very special. God expressed that special relationship when in the first Book of Genesis he said in verses 26 to 31: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

So, while the lower animals are loved by God, they are not expected to do or even know God. It is man that must know and do God because of the very special relationship man enjoys with God. “Let us make man in our own image!”

It is the Gospel of John 3, verse 16 that summarises God’s love for man: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

When people see themselves as the beginning or the end, they are no longer in our world. They become extremists in their thinking and behaviour. And that is why the world is in turmoil today. That is why there is so much unrest in many countries of the world today. So, we must learn to take on the responsibility that God gave to us as His special partners from the beginning of our journey on earth so that at the end of the day we can comfortably say the outing wasn’t bad. God bless you.

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