What is man…?
Good morning. I once read that Jack Cottrell, Christian author, theologian, and professor at Cincinnati Christian University was once awakened on a Cincinnati park bench in the middle of the night. It seems that Professor Cottrell had gone to the park the previous evening with the intention of wrestling with a serious theological question which arises from Psalm 8:4 What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? At one point, while deeply considering this important question, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. The next thing he knew it was well after midnight and a city police officer who was patrolling the park was shaking him awake, assuming that he was a vagrant. “Can’t you read?” asked the officer, as he pointed to a sign saying that the park closed at sundown. “Well yes,” Professor Cottrell answered, “I can read quite well.” The officer then asked, “Well then, who do you think you are?” “Actually,” Cottrell answered, “that is exactly the question for which I am trying to find an answer.”
I would imagine that the police officer was neither satisfied nor amused, and I am quite sure that Professor Cottrell’s stay in the park was over. Professor Cottrell went on to say that the answer to that question continues to be elusive. What is mankind that God pays so much attention to us? I mean seriously, what was it about man that set him apart from the rest of creation causing God to say, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” Genesis 1:26 The result of that choice meant: Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Genesis 2:7
God in His fullness (note the plural form used in Genesis 1:26) decided that Adam, the first example of mankind, should be spiritually blessed and therefore created in the image of God, which is to say His Spiritual image.
This distinction, this spiritual identity, means that mankind, each and every one of us, are designed to be eternal beings. The flesh that we inhabit is only a temporary condition. Our true reality is the spiritual truth that exists within the flesh.
If we continue to read the early account of Adam and Eve, we see that they were created for love and for fellowship with God. Man was not created to be alone, and man was not created to exist without a close relationship with God.
It seems that once God commits to love there is no turning back. God committed to loving mankind, even though He knew that they would ultimately reject His love. God not only committed to loving us, He committed to saving us from the brokenness that occurs when we sinfully reject His love. That brings us back to Professor Cottrell’s consideration of David’s question: What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
We don’t see ourselves as all that lovely or lovable, so why should God see us so differently? King David asked the question, and great theologians like Professor Cottrell continue to ponder it.
Perhaps we can only submit to the truth of God’s love.
Perhaps it is futile to ask for understanding of what is only clear in the mind of God.
Perhaps we should direct our intention to God’s Word as He tells us where His love should lead us: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:7-12
Perhaps love does not need any other answer.
Vern