Genesis 2:4-7, 15-25

            {Prayer}

            Handcrafted items are worth more than something similar made in a factory. When Jessica and I found out we were expecting Faith, I decided that I was going to make her a toy box. Now I could have gone out and bought one, but since I personally cut the wood, glued it together, stained it … it has a lot more value than some toybox from the store. I pray the kids take care of it and maybe even use it after I’m gone. But a store bought toybox? We probably would have gotten rid of it already.

            So … why do handmade items have this inherent value? Maybe it’s because every handmade item is a picture of its maker. The desire to create comes from the heart of the maker. The design and plan reveal the wisdom of the maker, or the lack there of in my case. The finished product is produced through hours of labor by a skillful hand developed over years of practice. Carefully and lovingly handcrafted items become invaluable keepsakes because they are more than just objects … they are lasting connections to the one who made them. 

            If this is true of a toy box or a quilt made by your grandmother … how much more is it true of you and me?

            Genesis 2 reminds us that God made man totally differently than He made the rest of creation. God made everything by speaking it into being. Let there be light. Let there be land. Let there be trees and birds and animals and creeping things that creep on the earth.

            But man was different. God got His hands dirty. “The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man becamse a living being” (Genesis 2:7). God reached His hands into the dust, intentionally made Adam’s body in the image of God, and breathed His own living-giving breath into him. The same thoughtful care is later given to the creation of woman. Knowing that Adam needed a suitable help, God caused Adam fall into a deep sleep, took one of his ribs, and made a woman for him.

            All of creation is God’s handiwork. Adam and Eve, though, are special. They are God’s masterpieces. They alone are designed and created in His image. They were what God had in mind on day one when He said “let there be.”

            God took man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it (Genesis 2:15). The Garden of Eden, and all of creation, was made for Adam and his family. They were reflections of God’s loving character and His divine skill. And by this careful and intentional … God placed immeasurable value upon human life. 

            Scripture is also honest with us. Sin shattered God’s masterpieces. God told Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). We know from Genesis 3 that Adam and Eve did eat the fruit from this tree and by their eating, sin and death entered our world and corrupted God’s masterpieces.

            Ever since that very moment, Adam and Eve and all their children have been broken by sin. Our bodies can be malformed, filled with diseases, weakened by age, and eventually die. Our minds and souls that have been warped by sin. Instead of thinking the way God wants us to think, instead of loving the way God wants us to love … our hearts are filled with selfishness, pride, fear, and shame.

            But … and this is important for us to hear …  even though we are broken and flawed … this does not devalue us as God’s handiwork. God Himself tells us that even today, even after sin entered His perfect world, He still fearfully and wonderfully creates each and every one of us. King David, a sinner like the rest of us, was inspired by the Holy Spirit when he wrote the words of Psalm 139. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb … I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (vs 13-14).

            It wasn’t just Adam and Eve who were handcrafted by God. Every single human being, from the least to the greatest, is still handcrafted by God. He plans, designs, and skillfully knits us together in our mother’s wombs. Does the curse of sin and death still affect us? Of course it does. But we are still God’s handiwork, God’s masterpiece. We are still created in His image … even if that image is terribly marred by sin. So, from the moment of conception when God starts knitting us together, until the day God has determined to call us home … each person, in every stage and condition of life, has immeasurable value in His sight.

            And while every one has immeasurable value in God’s eyes … sin has twisted us so deeply that it distorts how we see others. We live in a world that values productivity. We find worth in things that give us something in return. This line of thinking is often used to devalue unborn children or those with severe disabilities. The argument says the size or the condition of one’s body that leaves them less able to perform “normal” or “basic” functions … somehow makes them worth less than others.

            We can easily fall into a similar error when thinking about the elderly, the dying, and those with untreatable illnesses. Instead of seeing their God-given value, we place an economic value on them. The sick and dying often require a level of care that necessitates the sacrifice of both time and money. And when caring for people becomes costly… the devil, the world, and our sinful nature whisper that life is only valuable when it’s efficient. Increasingly, we hear arguments that such people should be allowed, or even encouraged, to die as quickly as possible.

            And there are also times when sin prevents us from seeing value in each other, or even in ourselves. When someone makes a bad decision like the woman who gets pregnant outside of marriage, the young woman who in desperation ended the life of her unborn child, and the homeless addict … we’re tempted to think that God loves them less.

            But Scripture says otherwise.

            In fact, we heard earlier St. Paul say in Romans 8, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (8:31). He goes on to say that “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, no any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:38-39). That promise tells us exactly how God sees human life. Life is not disposable, not expendable. Life is beloved.

            If we ever doubt the value God places on human life … we only need to think about the price that God paid to redeem and save His beloved creation. St. Paul writes, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). And what is that price? Peter says you were ransomed, “not with perishable things such as silver or gold … but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

The Second Person of the Trinity, God’s one and only Son, became fully human. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and allowed Himself to be knitted together in Mary’s womb. The Son of God was born, grew, suffered, and lived in the flesh … like every one of us … so that He might shed His blood and lay down His life for every man, woman, and child broken by sin.

            You see, God was willing to pay the ultimate price for you. Jesus entered every stage of human life, from the womb to the grave, to redeem His precious creation. Jesus “took on our infirmities and carried our diseases” (Matthew 8:17). He bore the utter shame of the cross to grant peace to the shamed. Jesus laid down His life to give eternal life to the dying.

            This means that your failure to love God above all things and your reluctance to see the value in every person, including yourself … is forgiven. Forgiveness was won at the cross, delivered to you by faith, promised in God’s Word, and confirmed by the crucified and risen Jesus. And though your body will weaken and give way to physical decay and death … it does not end there. You will be raised. Restored. Made whole. You will live with God forever, without corruption, without disease, without death.

            What Jesus has done for you … He offers it to everyone. As Jesus has given us this new life in Him … He calls and empowers you and me to live like Him. Even though sin still dwells within us, God is at work in you, in His children, refashioning His image in us. Your heart and mind are being renewed every day to love and think like Jesus. Your eyes are being opened to see others … the unborn, the weak and aged, the sick and dying, the guilty and shamed … the way Jesus sees them.

Jesus sees them as He sees you. God’s masterpiece. Fearfully and wonderfully created, and even more wonderfully redeemed, to live with Him now and forever. Amen.

            The peace of God, that surpasses all human understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, now and forever. Amen.