Dead or Alive
Genesis 1:27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Why is it that you can kill a cow to make a hamburger, a pig to make bacon, a chicken to roast for dinner, but if you kill another person, you’ll spend the rest of your life in jail? Why is that?
Well, it’s obvious. People are worth more than animals. A lot more. We don’t have to think about that too much. It’s just inherently true.
The other night on the news there was a story of a mother who was backing her car out of the driveway and accidentally ran over and killed her child. That sort of a story invokes a heart response in each one of us that goes way beyond anything else. Because even though this child was only seven months old, it was her child. It was a child that one day, should have grown up into a young woman who would find a husband and have her own children, right?
People have inherently more value than animals do. That’s the truth. Okay, but let me just poke around inside that truth a little bit more and ask you – why is it true? Why is it totally and absolutely true that a person is worth more than a cow? I mean when was the last time you thought about the cow when you were munching on the hamburger, right?
If we all just evolved from the primeval slime – and that’s what the majority of the people on this earth believe – what’s the difference? Well, here’s the difference:
So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)
Our sense of what we’re worth is being pounded, relentlessly, by what other people say about us, how they behave towards us, whether they included us in the office party or not, whether we were first or last to be invited to play on the team in the schoolyard way back when we were children.
It’s easy to go through life – your whole life in fact – with a damaged sense of identity; a sense that you’re not worth anything much, in a world that values beauty and success.
Somehow, it’s easy to believe that innately, people are worth more than animals, but when someone you love shows more affection to their pet dog than to you, it’s a lot harder to believe that you are worth more than an animal.
In your heart of hearts, what do you believe about your worth, your value in this world? Your answer matters. It matters a lot, because it’s going to determine whether you live your life based on a lie, or based on the truth.
So just one more time, here’s the truth: You were created in the image of God, in His image, He created you.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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