Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Genesis 1:26 (NIV)

You weren’t an afterthought. When the Creator God formed the universe, hung the sun in place and separated the water from the land, you were on his mind. When he spoke the word and thousands of plants and animals came into existence, he knew he wasn’t done. With a word, the Father spoke all this into existence. But when he made man, he stopped and thought about it.

Why? Was it because God was confused as to how to make man? Were we too large a task for him to handle? Of course not, God paused after making the other animals because this was something special. This ‘man’, these humans as we call them, were going to be set apart from everything else in creation.

These beings were going to be made in his image. That means that unlike other animals, human kind would have the ability to reason, speak choose. He would give them the power within themselves to do great and mighty things.

God made the world (the plants, the universe, and the animals) for mankind to tend to. He made mankind for his own personal relationship. Did the world need man to be complete? Probably not. The angels could have tended to the tasks at hand. Without man, God wouldn’t have been complete. He needed man to be his special object of love. He desired to create for himself one being that would be the most like him.

It’s no wonder then that when we shun God there is a part of us missing. We were created to fellowship with him and the absence of that fellowship causes and emptiness.

Oh, we can try to fill it with religion or spirituality. We can try to dull the pain with human relationships and materialistic endeavors. But nothing will fill that God-shaped hole in our hearts except for God himself.

God, the creator of the universe, the one that controls everything you see created you because he desired to have a passionate love relationship with you. Nothing you can do will make him change his mind about you. Nothing you can do will allow that love relationship to happen. There’s only one thing to fill the void and that’s Jesus Christ.

The forgiveness Jesus offers you through the cross allows you to a restored relationship with your creator.

PRAYER: God, I’ve been taught that you aren’t real. I’ve heard that all I see around me happened by chance. I thank you that I didn’t happen by chance. I thank you that I was intentionally made so I could love you. I’m tired of trying to fill this void in my life. Help me to find the peace only Jesus can give. Amen.