Most people desire to have children. Not all. But most. Why?

To create someone who must care for them in their old age? Maybe, but no guarantees exist this will happen. To gain an heir for their massive wealth? Seems less likely. A lot of worthy charities would gladly receive such an inheritance, and not many of us have a lot to leave. To pass down a wicked cool genetic superpower? Only in Marvel.

So why do people have children?

The same reason God created people.

Genesis 1:26 says, “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.’”

Of all creation, only humans were created in the likeness of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Only humans were given a call, a job description. To care for creation. Right away in Genesis, the Bible reveals something special exists about humans above all others.

We might ask, is that why God made us? To put us to work?

Hmm. If the Lord created us to be slaves to a desolate, ugly world, to toil and gain nothing, that seems pretty bleak.

Consider the haze over the Smoky Mountains, and the tang of fresh lemon in your nose, or the ooze of butter in a French pastry, how a spider coordinates eight legs (when I sometimes struggle with two) or the mental zing of a new discovery.

God made the world an amusement park and a laboratory, a playground and a museum with order and process where we could discover, grow and play. A world that steers us to Him. No one does that for a mere laborer.

Consider a great novel, whose author has spent days, maybe years, developing settings and characters, plots and conflicts. They have built a world of their own. A great landscape. Think about J.R.R. Tolkien, or J.K. Rowling, or C.S. Lewis. Those authors built worlds, sometimes even whole languages, for one purpose. To give their beloved characters a home.

God’s world building served the same purpose. He wasn’t building a mere dwelling. He was intricately designing a home. Such great lengths for a creation profoundly wanted.

Why did God make us? For the same reason most people have children.

To love them. If humans long to share the love inside them with another, how much more did God itch for someone on whom to pour out limitless love?

1 John 4:16-19:

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us. 

We exist to be loved and to love. To receive the gift of pure, selfless agape love God is throwing in fistfuls at us. He doesn’t even force us to love Him back. Yet He created anyway. So He could love us. And so we could love others.

Sometimes we ask, “Why in the world am I here?” In those moments, we can look around, think, “Why, I am here. In the world,” and remember. We were put here to be loved. To receive the love the Father has for us. And then to love further.

How is God showing you His love today?

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