“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Ps. 8:3-4).

David saw the moon and stars as evidence of God’s creative wisdom and power. These heavenly bodies were ordained, or set in place, by God (Is. 40:26) as a permanent testimony to His power and greatness.

As David contemplated these things, he began to feel small and insignificant: “What is man that You are mindful of him?” Every generation has pondered this same question. Unlike David, many today consider their origin and purpose without knowledge of their Creator. Without God, we are mere specks in the cosmos, the products of random chance, without meaning and purpose for our existence. There is nothing to account for the intricate design clearly seen in our universe. No adequate explanation for the existence of morality, mercy, justice, and love. However, when, through His word, we know God, everything comes into sharp focus.

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7; c.f. Ps. 100:3).

Mankind is not the latest version of a highly evolved life form, the product of eons of genetic mutations. We are not a mere collection of conscious matter without purpose propelled across the Milky Way galaxy. We are the pinnacle of God’s creation, the creature for whom He made everything else (Gen. 1:26-28). He gave us dominion over the rest of His creation. It is ours to explore, inhabit, cultivate, and use – to God’s glory.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:13-14). The cells in our bodies making up our limbs and organs are all crafted by God. He uniquely designed the features (skin color, eye color, hair color, height, etc.) that make us distinct from one another. Each individual’s aptitude and personality is, in part, the result of God’s design. God even determined the time and place that you came into this world.

Life has meaning when we realize we have a Creator to Whom we owe our existence. This is one reason we reverence, praise, and serve Him (Ps. 100).

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen. 1:26-27).

“Created in God’s image” does not mean God has arms and legs, hands and feet, a head and torso. He does not have a physical body. It means we are the only part of His creation that has an eternal spirit. In this, we alone are like our Maker. God gave animals instinct, and some instinctive behavior is very complex. However, He gave us freewill. We can think, learn, and reason. Like our God, we have a wide range of emotions, a sense of right and wrong (morality), a desire to create, an admiration of beauty, the ability to love, and the desire to be loved in return.

After making everything else, God designed mankind to be able and willing to commune and connect with Him. God “has put eternity into man’s heart” (Eccl. 3:11, ESV). Animals received instinct, but we were given a desire to connect with something or someone greater than us. God “inhabits eternity” (Is. 57:15). This longing for eternity brings our desire for fellowship with God.

The world around us reveals our Creator’s presence (Ps. 19:1-3; Rom. 1:18-20). However, it is not enough to know God exists. God calls for us to understand and know Him. “But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight” (Jer. 9:24). Our purpose is not to obtain an education, master a skill, find a soul mate, achieve greatness, or leave a legacy. The greatest thing we can accomplish is to know and understand God.

While in Athens on his second missionary journey, Paul was roused to speak up when he saw the city completely given over to idols (Acts 17:16, 22-23). It wasn’t that the Athenians did not believe in God. They believed in a multitude of gods, but not one of them was their true Creator.

Given the opportunity to address them with the gospel, Paul told them they were made by God (Acts 17:24-26). Then he told them they had been created for a purpose: “So that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being…” (vs. 27-28a).

The phrase “that they might grope for” is from a Greek word that refers to the moving of one’s hands over a surface; the effort necessary to find something in the dark. This is exactly what the people of Athens were doing by pursuing all their idols. They were acting on the eternity (knowledge of something greater than this world) that God had put in their hearts, but without the light of His revelation.

The Athenians were groping for meaning in the darkness of paganism. Today, people are searching for meaning in their lives without acknowledging God. Some have been influenced by the theory of evolution and have decided God does not exist. Others have a bad attitude toward God and prefer to live without Him. However, none of this changes the fact that they are made in His image. They are acting on the longing for eternity that He placed in their hearts, but they are looking in all the wrong places to satisfy this longing.

I picture this eternity that He placed in our hearts, or being made in God’s image, as a large, God-shaped hole within ourselves. We can search the world for something to fill this hole (satisfy this longing), but we will come up empty every time because only God can fill this void.

The message of atheistic evolution is that we are the products of chance, without meaning and purpose for our existence. The Bible’s message is that we are the most important part of God’s creation – its pinnacle and purpose.

Fish were created to swim. Birds were created to fly. When fish swim and birds fly, they fulfill their purpose and glorify their Creator. You and I have been fearfully and wonderfully made in God’s image. We were created to have fellowship with God. When we are reconciled to God through the blood of His Son (Col. 1:20-22), come to know and understand God as our Heavenly Father, and walk with Him in daily fellowship, we are finally fulfilling the purpose for which we have been uniquely created.