This week I’ve uttered a phrase to my daughter that has surprised me. Many times this week, I’ve asked my 4 year old princess to “watch” her brother while mommy runs to the laundry room or “watch” her brother while mommy changes her clothes or “watch” her brother while mommy gets lunch ready. Translation, please make sure your brother does not touch any electronic devices, rummage through the trash or decide to spill the dog’s food and water while I am temporarily away for a few minutes. The gleam in my daughter’s eye is quite amusing. I have just given her dominion and made her ruler of an 18 month old.
I began to dwell on this experience as I read Psalm 8: 3-8 this week. The psalm states “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. This verse echoes what is written in Genesis, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
In the end, I’ve always understood these verses to mean that as humans we were created a step up from everything else in creation. As humans, we have been made special, we’ve been made rulers compared to everything else God created, and He has allowed us to have dominion over his mighty work. What a privilege! However, there are some negative feelings that tend to creep up when I read these verses. Just like Satan to attack. I can’t help but feel a bit powerful, arrogant and mighty. With an evil chuckle, I think I have been made above everything else….ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
These feelings are quickly put in check when I compare myself to everything else in God’s creation. Let’s face it, if I was placed head to head with a lion, I wouldn’t feel like I have dominion over it. When I compare myself to the beautiful mountains God created and think how many people have died climbing them, I don’t feel so supreme. When I think of a tree planted in the ground and think of its life span and all the wind and weather damage it endures in its lifetime, I do not feel like a strong ruler. In fact, when I compare myself to God’s creation I feel inferior not supreme.
Having dominion over something, doesn’t mean we are so powerful. When I read these verses, I do not want to feel sense of supremacy, power or mightiness. When I read these versus, I want to feel special, and honored that God has allowed us to have dominion over what He created. In the end, I’ve never seen a lion tame human, I’ve never seen a tree be able to withstand the axe man uses to cut it down, nor I’ve never seen a mountain conquer anything like man does when he climbs to the top of it.
With my four year old daughter, that gleam of superiority in her eye quickly changes into despair when her brother starts getting into things. She quickly realizes she is not so powerful and it is not so easy. Being given dominion over God’s creation is something of reverence and awe not superiority and power. Therefore, let us be good care takers of what God has entrusted us and have a healthy view of what having dominion is really about. We were not created above everything else to boast.
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