Meaningful life

God creates the earth and all that is in it, setting up the principles and physical laws that govern creation. As the pinnacle of all created things on this earth, God creates man.

And “God breathes into man the breath of life … and man became a living being”. (Gen 2:7).

Of course all the other created things are also alive, in the sense that they are not physically dead. They grow and breathe and sense and eat and sleep and so on. But it is only into man that God breathes His breath of life. It is only man who is the recipient of God’s life, 'life to the full' as Jesus describes it, or as it is also sometimes referred to, eternal life. It is only man who has the invitation to become part of God’s circle of Love, to ‘partake of his divine nature’ (cf 2 Peter 1:4). It is only man who is created with the ability to receive love, to give love and to be defined by love. And he is created with the ability to choose (more of that in a couple of posts’ time!).

Being able to receive God’s love and living within the fullness of that love is what it means to live life to the full. Only by living saturated by God’s love does our life take on the meaning we crave for our lives, a meaning that cannot be fulfilled by any other source.

So man lived in perfect relationship with God.

He had God’s presence. God walked with him in the cool of the day. God was there. God was a significant part of his life.

Man had God’s provision. God allowed him to eat from the trees in the garden and to work the garden to produce food. “I give you every seed-bearing plant … they will be yours for food” (Gen 1:29).

Man also had a God-given purpose. God gave man a job to do: “Go, bear fruit, increase in number, bring into order what has been created.” (Gen 1:28).

And man had God’s power. Not in the sense that man was as powerful as God, but in the sense that God put man in charge of the created world. “Rule over the fish and the birds and over every living creature that moves on the ground”, “Fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen 1:28). God gave man dominion over the rest of creation and as such he gave man authority and power over the natural order that God had created. The rest of the natural created order is God’s gift to man, to look after and steward. This is important to understand.

Being able to enjoy God’s continual presence, living under the shadow of his wing if you like, depending on God for provision and to meet our needs, having significance and a purpose in life, and partnering with God in what he is doing on earth define the parameters of a relationship with God, a relationship motivated and driven by mutual Love. Only within these parameters can we experience meaningful life, life to the full.