Read an Excerpt
Why Am I Here?
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.—Genesis 1:1
You and I are hurtling through an immense universe on a little blue ball called planet Earth. It’s only natural to wonder, Why am I here?
You might think I’d have this figured out by now. I’m a father of two, a grandfather of eight, a pastor, and a professor with decades of life experience. Yet there are still days when I wrestle with the question. Maybe you can relate.
All I can tell you is that the best answer I’ve ever found is at the beginning of the Bible. And it starts not with Why but with Who.
Who Created This World?
We learn from the opening sentences of the Bible what our Creator is like (Genesis 1:1–3). All artists leave fingerprints. Their creations reveal their character. The same is true for God.
God the Father is the architect. Not only did he create the earth, but he also made matter itself. And that matters. You see, every other ancient religion thought matter was eternal and the gods merely shaped it into the world we know. It’s basically the same idea as Darwinian evolution—matter has always somehow existed. The Bible says something different. It credits the one true God for both the shape of the world and the stuff it’s made from.
The Holy Spirit is the engineer. As we read in verse 2, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” The Hebrew word for “hovering” describes a vibration. The Spirit “quaked” to bring order out of chaos. It’s kind of like your mother thirty minutes before dinner guests arrive.
More than that, the Spirit breathed life into Adam (2:7) just as he does for you. With every breath you take, the Spirit is coursing through you. (This is also true of animals, according to Psalm 104:30.) The Spirit is relentlessly, intimately, and perpetually involved in the fabric of our world.
When people ignore the Spirit’s role in creation, the environment becomes a resource to be exploited rather than a gift to be nurtured. We miss the Spirit in the wind, the bloom of a flower, and the majesty of the mountains. Consequently, Christians often limit worship to a building on Sunday, rather than worshipping daily in the expanse of the universe. God the Father created; God the Spirit creates.
Jesus is the builder. He did the heavy lifting during the Creation. This fact is seen in Genesis 1:3: “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Fast-forward to John 1:1–3: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” This Word is none other than Jesus (verse 14). Before Jesus came to earth, he created the earth. When God gave the command, Jesus—the Word—turned the command into creation.
The apostle Paul described it this way:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:15–16)
When we ignore the role of Jesus in creation, we focus on getting to heaven rather than bringing heaven to earth through social justice: care for people and their environment. Jesus cares about what happens on the earth he created!
So, there you have it: God is the architect, the Holy Spirit is the engineer, and Jesus is the builder. If we ignore any of these truths, we’ll misunderstand not only the nature of creation but also our own nature and God’s purpose for us here on earth.
Which gets us to Why.
Why Did God Create This World?
Psalm 102:18 provides the answer: “Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.” God created so his creation would bring him glory. We do the same thing. We dress to impress. We flaunt our swag. We perform on stage and on the field to please others and receive praise. God creates with the same impulse. He wants us to recognize and enjoy what he made for us.
Why not? What he made is praiseworthy, and it starts with our own bodies. Our fingerprints, the structure of our eyes, the electrical synapses of our brains—our bodies are works of art. From Olympic spectacles to ballet, from the NBA to National Geographic, we’re stunned by God’s handiwork. David expressed it well: “You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (139:13). God’s fingerprints are all over us!
And God made us to manage his creation: “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). We partner with God to carry on creation. God created the heavens and the earth—he leaves it up to us to make a world that’s wonderful.
In many ways, we have. Think about human achievements in art, science, literature, music, athletics. In other ways, we’ve failed miserably! All around, we see the consequences of human brokenness. Yet the last chapter of human history has yet to be written, although the end, of course, has begun in the story of Jesus: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). There’s not a quick fix or an easy solution. But someday we will see the beautiful restoration of Eden, and you can be part of that:
The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. . . . We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. (Romans 8:19, 22)
Key Points
•The Father, Son, and Spirit each play a vital role in creation.
•God created for the same reasons we do: for others’ pleasure and our own praise.
•Just as God created the earth, we’re to continue to re-create a world reflecting his love.
This Week
ο Day 1: Read the essay. Then note in the margins something you learned about yourself.
ο Day 2: Memorize Genesis 1:1.
ο Day 3: Read Genesis 1–2. What does the record of our beginnings reveal about your life’s purpose?
ο Day 4: Write down the question “Why am I here?” Then see what answers you find in John 1:1–3, Ephesians 2:10, and Colossians 1:15–16.
ο Day 5: In what ways are you creative or talented? Art, music, poetry, encouragement, food, something else? Create something to give to someone, joining God in making a beautiful world.
