C. S. Lewis, in his testimony Surprised by Joy, described his growing awareness of the capacity within himself to respond with joy and delight in such a way that it gave him an insatiable desire for more joy and delight. The things he found so deeply satisfying left him with a craving for more and more satisfaction. He concluded that nothing in this world could ever give him lasting satisfaction, so therefore he must have been created for another world. And C. S. Lewis was right. Our very beings are created for God. We will never experience permanent, personal satisfaction and fulfillment apart from Him because, as Saint Augustine so eloquently stated, “Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in Thee.”
God is the Creator Whose purpose for you and me is the same as it was when He created our environment in the beginning. He wants us to reflect His image so that we might receive His blessing. “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day” (Gen. 1:31, niv).
In the end, the Creator stood back. He surveyed the transformation of the environment that had followed His loving and careful preparation. Then He looked at the man and woman He had created in His own image, with a capacity to be His close, personal friends, and He was pleased.
As the Creator surveys your life, is He still pleased?
Apart from understanding the work of God in our creation, there is no real meaning to human existence. If there was no Creator, then you are some cosmic accident, having come from nowhere and on your way to nowhere. You are just a nobody with no ultimate accountability or eternal value. Now that’s depressing! Praise God, it’s not true!
Where are you seeking lasting satisfaction? You may find temporary satisfaction in things and people, but permanent, deep, full satisfaction of your very being is only found in a right relationship with God for Whom you were created.
Not only is your being created for God, but your doing is created for God also. You and I were created for commitment to serve God. The Garden of Eden was not only a place for man to live, but it was a place for man to serve.
The Hebrew word for “formed” is yatsar, which means “to mold.” It is the same word used to describe a potter molding and shaping clay. The description reveals that while God spoke
the worlds into space,
the planets into orbit,
the earth on its axis,
the seas within their boundaries,
the sun, moon, and stars to appear in the sky,
the trees and flowers to cover the earth,
the animals to fill the earth,
God personally shaped the physical characteristics of man with His own hands and breathed into man His own life! Such knowledge should cause us to pause and worship the Creator Who molded you and me from the “dust of the ground.”
