Why Were We Created?

Why Were We Created?

Genesis 1

            “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  And the plants.  And the animals.  And birds.  And fish.  And finally, God created human beings.  And God saw everything that God had made, and God pronounced it good.

            We know all this.  We know the first chapter of Genesis well enough to quote it—perhaps not verbatim, but we know the sequence.  We know the order of creation, what happened each day, and that, at the end of each day, God said, “That’s good.”

            Still, we have a tendency to pass over this chapter pretty quickly.  Bible literalists see it as scientific fact, accept it, and move on.  Those who believe God may have taken more than six twenty-four hour days to create the universe minimize the biblical account in favor of their own interpretation.  Some of us can’t wait to get to the second chapter and the story of humankind’s fall from innocence and grace.  For whatever reason, many find that more to their liking than the creation story.

             The instructor for the class I’m taking at seminary showed us a video that contained a clip of Bishop Desmond Tutu preaching.  For those of you who do not recognize the name, Bishop Tutu was the Anglican bishop of South Africa, and an outspoken critic of the inequalities caused by apartheid.  He is now retired, but still speaks out in support of what he believes is right.

            In this clip, Bishop Tutu said, “God didn’t create us because God needed us, but because God wanted us” (emphasis mine).  What a revelation!  Here, perhaps, is the reason behind creation.  We know God doesn’t need us.  God is the most self-contained entity there is or could possibly be.  God needs nothing:  not angels, not worlds, not flowers or trees, not animals—not even us.  God did not create all these because God needed them.  God created them because God wanted them—and especially, God wanted us.

            Why does God want us?  I have no idea.  I cannot read the mind of God, and I have no intention of trying.  I do know I agree with Bishop Tutu.  For whatever reason, God wanted to have us around.  We don’t satisfy God’s need, but God’s desire.

            Because God created us, God loves us—all of us.  We might even go so far as to say God cherishes us.  Like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son, God is willing to let us go our own way, even if that way turns out to be self-destructive.  Like that same father, God waits for us to turn around, to change our way of living.  God waits to welcome us back into the family fold.

            Because God created us, God preserves us.  God sustains us from day to day.  This world and everything in it was created for us, to provide us with a home, with food—with everything we need not just to survive, but to thrive. 

God also expects us to care for all creation.  Many science fiction stories are based on humankind using up earth’s resources, and moving out into space, taking over other planets, either by conquering them or “terraforming” them.  Masters of the genre like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clark have created marvelous tales about this movement.  But don’t get your hopes up.  At preesent it’s no sure bet that if we destroy our world we’ll be able to move elsewhere.

            Because God created us, God wants to communicate with us.  Even more importantly, God wants us to communicate in return.  We have been given the wonderful opportunity to talk with God.  Let’s keep in touch with the One who wanted us enough to create and sustain us.