"If the mountains bow in reverence, so will I."
These are the lyrics that continuously played in my head as we were doing a prayer walk through the Honduran mountains. We had finished early with children's ministry, so while we were waiting on our clinical team to finish, our mission leader drove us further up the mountain, let us out on the side of the road, and instructed us to do a prayer walk for 20 minutes just having alone time with God.
As I was walking and praying, I just kept gazing in awe at the beauty of the mountains. (Y'all, the view was INCREDIBLE. Pictures do it no justice.) I was in awe of God. How much more incredible was the One who CREATED these beautiful mountains!? If the mountains bow in reverence, so will I. I was blown away at the sight of these mountains, let alone the realization that these mountains, in all of their glory and beauty, bow in reverence to God.
As I was praying and talking to the Lord and being completely mesmerized by these mountains, I found myself wondering why God created humans and why God created me. The mountains bow in reverence. The mountains glorify God. God gets SO much glory from the mountains, the trees, the sky, the clouds, the grass, and everything else in nature. Even the sun and stars, the moon and the planets; all of it brings glory to God. He does not need me to glorify Him– He already gets way more glory from nature than I could ever give. So I found myself asking, "God, why did You create me?"
I thought back to the story of Creation found in Genesis chapter 1. God did not create man until the 6th day. This was not a mistake. It wasn't that man was an afterthought, but that God wasn't finished yet. Even though He had all of the glory from everything He created before He created humans, it still was not enough. And this is what God reminded me of on the mountain. Having the glory from everything on earth (before humans were created) wasn't enough.
You see, while God did create humans for His glory, that's not the only reason He created us. While we were on the mountain and I was thinking about all of the ways that nature glorifies God and all of the ways that humans fall short in doing that, I knew there had to be another reason for our existence. Bringing glory to God simply wasn't enough– if it was, He would have stopped with creation after He made the mountains.
God created us for more than His glory. God created us for relationship. This is what makes humans different from every other part of God's creation. Not only did He create us for His glory, but He took it a step further and created us to experience His love– with the possibility of loving Him back and entering into relationship with Him. This is why we were created: Because the God of the universe had so much love to give and He wanted to share it. He created us to be recipients of His love. He created us so that we could know, receive, and bask in His love. He created us to be in relationship with Him.
I mean think about it. Humans are the only creation who turn their backs on God. Humans are the only creation who disobey, rebel, and sin against God. Humans are the only ones who break God's heart time and time again. Humans are the only ones who don't listen and seek to follow their own will and their own wicked hearts, rather than following the will of God. Humans are the only creation who needed a Savior because we chose temporary pleasure over obedience in the Garden (and we continue to do that to this day). We are the only creation that forsook the goodness of God and the joy of being unhindered in His presence. We are the only creation that intentionally ran from God.
God knew we would do this even before He created us. Yet, He still chose to. Why?
Because although we are the only creation to sin against God, we are also the only creation that is able to understand and experience the redemption of God. We are the only creation that has the capability of being washed clean from guilt, shame, and sin. We are the only creation that knows what it means to have restored relationship with God.
We are the only creation capable of having relationship with God. This is why He created us. Knowing the hurt, damage, and destruction we would cause, He still chose to create us because He wanted relationship with us. He wanted to show us His love, even if it did include sending Jesus to the cross to die for us. He created us so that He could love us. He created us so that we might know Him. He created us for relationship, not because He was lonely, but because He had love that He wanted to share.
God created us because He is love.
God created us because He wanted to share Himself with us.
God created us because He wanted us to have the never-ending experience of knowing, exploring, and drowning in the perfect, incomprehensible love that He has for us.
God created us because He wanted us to know of this crazy love that drove Jesus to the cross.
God created us because He wanted us to know this love that is deeper, wider, and longer, and higher than anything else.
God created us because He wanted us to know of this love that calls out to sinners and calls us back HOME.
God created us because He wanted us to know of this unending, everlasting love that goes on and on and on.
God created us because He wanted us to know of this crazy love that drove Jesus to the cross.
God created us because He wanted us to know this love that is deeper, wider, and longer, and higher than anything else.
God created us because He wanted us to know of this love that calls out to sinners and calls us back HOME.
God created us because He wanted us to know of this unending, everlasting love that goes on and on and on.
God created us because He wanted us to know of this unrelenting love that would never let go.
God created us because He wanted us to know that nothing could ever separate us from His love.
God created us because He wants us to live in His love and to be in relationship with Him.
This, my friends, is why He created us. Because He had love that He wanted us to experience for ourselves, love Him back as a result, and in the process of it all– bring Him glory.
Our reason for existence is that we may know of the love of God and then respond to His love– in loving Him back and in loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Love is the reason we are here. Love is the reason for our existence.
This, my friends, is why He created us. Because He had love that He wanted us to experience for ourselves, love Him back as a result, and in the process of it all– bring Him glory.
Our reason for existence is that we may know of the love of God and then respond to His love– in loving Him back and in loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Love is the reason we are here. Love is the reason for our existence.
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
-Romans 5:8
"We love Him because He first loved us."
-1 John 4:19
Thanks for reading! I hope you all enjoyed this and I hope you know how immensely LOVED you are by God ♥︎
Blessings,
Elisha