This morning while I was sitting there (doing my morning business), I noticed a speck on the floor moving around. It was a small insect of some kind, so small that had it been passing over anything but the light colored linoleum tiles on my bathroom floor it would have passed totally unobserved by me. As I sat there, I thought that I could reach down and squash it and that would be the end of him. But why should I? He's not harming anyone. He's no threat to me. He is just scurrying around, using the instincts that God gave him, trying to find himself something to eat in order to survive another day. But as I continued to watch him, a question came to my mind, "Is this how God sees us?"
Both humanity and this insect were created by the same Creator. Both are alive. Humanity is no more of a threat to God than that insect is to me. But flip it around and humanity could be destroyed by God quicker than I could squash that insect. Does God look down and see humanity scurrying around day by day, using the gifts and talents He has given us, trying to get what we need to survive for yet another day? Does our scurrying seem as haphazard and senseless to God as that little insect's did to me? Then another question came to mind, "Would I be willing to die for that little life that was running around totally oblivious to my presence?" Or even, "Would I be willing to sacrifice a member of my family in exchange for that insect's life?" My answer to both questions would have to be a resounding NO! But thankfully God, who is higher about humans that I am above that insect, didn't feel that way about us. Despite all the times that we have been oblivious to His presence, or openly hostile to it, or ungrateful to Him, He still loves us. I think that is because He gave humanity something that He withheld from the rest of His creations, that being His image. We are made in the image of God, and whatever else that means, it means that we should respect and love each and every human being in this world because: 1) the image of God in which they are made is deserving of it; and 2) having that image of God, who is love, in us means that we should wholly love those whom God loves.
Soon, the little insect disappeared under the baseboard, safe to pursue his task of survival. I could have killed him and moved on. My life would be no different whether he lived or died. But with the prevalence of death all around us in this world, letting that insect live meant that, at least in my house this morning, when death could have easily come down upon this littlest of creatures, life prevailed.
