As a boy, I loved visiting Grandma. She always welcomed us with a smile, a hug, and a cake. At Grandma’s house, every trouble disappeared, and every grandchild was special. I remember the sweetness of her glazed lemon cake balanced with a tartness that bore itself into my spirit. I still hear her chuckle spreading magically through the house. I also remember in the middle bedroom a photocopied picture tacked to the wall with a grumpy boy staring out from beneath the words, “I know I’m somebody because God don’t make no junk.” It reinforced Grandma’s lessons, that each of us was exceptional.
Greatness
Grandma taught us an invaluable truth—God made people special. The greatness of humanity starts with its place in the creation. God said, “Let us make man in our image” (Gen 1:26). No other part of creation reflects the image of God. No animal, planet, star, or flower has this distinction. God made man the pinnacle of His creation.
Man also contains the breath of God (Gen 2:7). After God formed man from the dirt, He animated the lifeless body with His own breath. The seagulls did not spring to life with the breath of God. Nor did the gazelle, geranium, or Fido, the family cat.
Special Instructions
God also made man special by giving him special instructions, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food” (Gen 1:28-29). Neither the enormous elephant, nor the towering redwoods, nor the fierce lion received instructions to rule over the earth. In fact, God created all these resources to sustain humanity. This makes us extraordinary.
The Greatness of Re-creation
But the image, breath, and Law of God in man’s creation cannot compare to the greatness of man’s re-creation. As man sinned, his luster wore away. His initial holiness tarnished. Pride, envy, lust, hatred, malice, and selfishness consume mankind. Sin ruined greatness, and God was not happy.
Therefore, God sent Jesus, His son to establish the righteous example. Jesus kept humanity’s righteous obligation before God. Then He took the guilt of all the sins and died as the sacrifice to appease God’s holy wrath. In return, He asked for simple obedience and allegiance.
When man obeys, God takes His tools of grace, and chisels away the sin, polishes the dingy spots, and re-creates man in the image of Jesus, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10). Better than the beginning. That’s true greatness.
Grandma was right, “God don’t make no junk.” But even better, God restores the wreck we made of our lives. No life is broken, abused, wrecked, disregarded, forgotten, or sin-sick enough that God cannot fix it. Bring Christ your broken life.
Preaching Minister