Part 1
There is a question we probably don't often ask ourselves.
Not:
What job do I do?
How much have I earned?
What have I achieved?
What has happened to me?
But a much more fundamental question:
Who am I, really?
Because, if we see ourselves only through what we have experienced, we might start to think that we are what has happened to us.
The work we do.
The money we have or don't have.
Family.
Successes.
Failures.
Fears.
Wounds.
Problems.
All these can begin to define how we see ourselves.
But the story of man does not begin there.
IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS SOMETHING ELSE
In the book of Genesis, the story of man begins with something entirely different.
Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness...
Genesis 1:26
And then:
So God created mankind in his own image...
Genesis 1:27
Here it is worth pausing for a moment.
Man was not created to live without knowing why he was here.
His origin was in God.
His identity began with the image of God.
And God gave him a place and a responsibility within creation.
Psalm 139 expresses it this way:
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Psalm 139:14
Perhaps this is one of the first things we have forgotten.
Before man began to define himself by what he did, there was a Creator who had given him life, identity, and purpose.
WHAT WAS MAN CREATED FOR?
Genesis continues and tells us that God gave man responsibility over the earth.
God blessed man and told him to be fruitful, to fill the earth, and to exercise authority over its creatures.
Genesis 1:28
Then God placed man in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:15
Man was not created simply to exist.
He received life from God.
He received a place.
He received work.
He received responsibility.
And he was entrusted with something to work, to keep, and to administer.
All of this happened before the fall.
Therefore, work and responsibility were not the problem.
The problem was not that man had something to do.
Work and responsibility were part of the place God had given him.
The question is:
What was man's life like before the fall occurred?
EDEN
Then we come to Eden.
When we hear the word “Eden,” we often think only of a beautiful garden.
But the story in the Bible tells us more.
God made trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.
Genesis 2:9
He placed man in the garden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:15
God spoke to man and showed him which trees he could eat from and which command he had to obey.
Genesis 2:16-17
Man had food.
He had work and responsibility.
He had a place to care for.
He had a command from God.
And God communicated with him.
Scripture also tells us that the man and his wife were naked and felt no shame.
Genesis 2:25
This is the description the Bible gives us of man's life before the fall.
Man was not trying to create his own identity.
God had created him in His own image.
Man was not trying to find his own place.
God had placed him in the garden.
Man was not trying to invent his own purpose.
God had given him work and responsibility.
This is something worth thinking about even today.
Because we are used to a different way of life.
To work more.
To earn more.
To provide more.
To build more.
To have more.
And often, without realizing it, our whole life begins to revolve around one question:
How will I manage?
But the story of the beginning tells us that human life began with God.
He was the Creator.
He gave man life.
He gave him identity.
He gave him a place.
And He gave him responsibility.
BEFORE MAN LOST HIS WAY
In the beginning, man was in the place where God had put him.
He had the food that God had provided.
He had the work that God had given him.
He had a responsibility.
He had a command.
And God spoke to him.
Perhaps this is why, when we look at our lives today and ask why there is so much fear, weariness, lack, conflict, and insecurity, we need to go back a little.
Not to live in the past.
But to understand what God had created in the beginning.
Because, if we don't know what life was like before man lost his way, we cannot fully understand what changed and what we are looking for today.
And perhaps here begins another part of the puzzle.
If man was created in the image of God, if he had a place, a purpose, and a responsibility…
What happened?
Where you can continue
Next chapter: 02 · How did darkness enter human life?.