Articles
Insignificant?
According to some seemingly wise and intelligent individuals, man's existence is nothing more than mere chance, and not by special creation, and have then concluded that we exist something like "a mote of dust in the morning sky” (Carl Sagan, Cosmos), or that man is "just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting round a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies" (Stephen Hawking). According to these late scientists, man's very existence and being is insignificant; the natural conclusion would necessarily be that each individual human being is likewise [or even more so] insignificant..
Let me just note this at the beginning: Though these men were high on the intelligence scale, they both made faulty conclusions, and based on the same faulty reasoning. Their faulty reasoning is that since man is so utterly small compared to the vastness of the universe and even compared to some of its constituent parts, he must be relatively [or for some, utterly or completely] insignificant. Especially for those who argue that we are here by mere time and chance, that would be the only logical conclusion that could be made; it only makes sense that something that exists because of the mere passage of time and by extraordinary chance would have no purpose or meaning; it "just happened," after all.
The fault in this reasoning, as it applies to mankind, is that the conclusions are not necessarily true; just because something is physically small does not mean necessarily that it is insignificant. For example, a 10 mm x 1-1/2" machine-threaded bolt is small, compared to the overall size of an automobile, but is it insignificant? You wouldn't think so when that bolt — which just happens to fasten a bracket holding up your car's driveshaft — is absent! Sagan and Hawking erroneously concluded that small equals insignificant, and there are many other otherwise intelligent individuals who have made the same faulty conclusions — all in an effort to eliminate the possibility and reality of special creation.
Sadly, the influence of such erroneous thinking has affected generations of men who strive diligently to deny and eliminate any thoughts of the existence of God, and we are reaping the consequences of such thinking. When men are taught to believe they exist by the mere passage of time and by mere chance, then they consequently conclude life has no meaning, and if life itself has no meaning, then their lives and the lives of others have no meaning, either. Is it any wonder we are seeing more and more individuals who have no compunction about taking their own lives, or the lives of others?
Rather than take the word of men who begin with the premise of no God and, thus, no Creator, resulting in no meaning or purpose of life itself, we would do well to hear the words from our Creator, as revealed to us through men who were inspired by Him to write down His thoughts about our very existence and how He views our significance [if any].
He Cares About Man. For some who deny the existence of God, it is because, to them, our infinitely small place in the vastness of the universe makes them think, "Why would such a powerful being care about so small a part of his creation?" That's not a bad question, actually, and it was even asked by one who did believe! The psalmist once asked of God, “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Psa. 8:4), and, “Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him? Or the son of man, that You are mindful of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow” (Psa. 144:3, 4).
Indeed, when we look at the seemingly physical insignificance of man as compared to the vastness of the universe, we might ask that same question, but despite our disbelief that God would care for such a small part of the universe, He does!
Let's not forget that it was this same God who “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16); it was this same God who knew even before He created us that we would all turn away from Him and sin, and yet created us anyway, with a plan already in place to reconcile us to Him (1 Pet. 1:19)! In the broadest sense, God cares for man, in that He prepared ahead of time for our spiritual needs.
But God cares for our physical and emotional needs, too. When He created man [Adam], He saw that man was alone and declared it was not good, so He created a woman for the man (Gen. 2:18-24). Jesus pointed to the watchful care of God for man when He admonished His audience to not worry about what they would eat or drink, or what they would wear, for “your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things” (Matt. 6:25-32). He cares for all men, regardless of their care or concern for Him (cf. Matt. 5:45).
He Cares About You. And as difficult as it may be to believe that God cares so much about the whole of mankind, even more incredible is the fact He cares about each one of us individually. He doesn't just look upon 'mankind' to see what is needed; He looks into each individual's life and cares for each soul. Spiritually speaking, God cares about the soul of every individual, for God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9), and “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3, 4). If God desires this of “any” and “all” men, then this necessarily means He cares about each and every one.
His care for individuals is seen in examples such as Cornelius, a Gentile and Roman centurion who was described as “a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always” (Acts 10:2). Once, he saw a vision of an angel, who told him, “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God” (Acts 10:4); God heard the prayers of this individual.
Even the apostle Paul did not take this fact for granted, but spoke of how he now lived for Christ, “who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20); notice he didn't simply write that Christ had died "for all mankind," but made it as personally applicable as it truly was; he said Christ died for him. God cares, too, about you.
But, still, you may be wondering why God would care! I know…even with all God has told us, it is still incredible to think He would care about mankind, much less me, as an individual — a speck in the vast universe. Well, the reason He cares is because He “created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him” (Gen. 1:27). With this done, man was unlike anything else God had created and, as such, He had a special concern for him as with nothing else, too.
What it all comes down to — and even as I write this, I still cannot fully comprehend the depths of it — is that God loved His creation [man] and wanted us to be with Him eternally. Even though He knew we would be undeserving, He created us anyway.
You are not insignificant. — Steven Harper
