Worship and work

In the middle of a little book of discourses, there is a collection of discourses on What We Learn From the Lilies In the Field and From the Birds of the Air, and the middle of this little collection is a discourse entitled "How Glorious It Is to Be a Human Being." And in this discourse the author argues that the glory of being human comes from these two things that we alone of all creation can do: that we can worship, and that we can work.

When the author of this discourse took the time to look at the lilies of the field, as Jesus commanded, and thought about how God clothes us in so much more glory than the lilies, he saw that this clothing must refer to something innate in us as being humans, not in our literal clothing (which has never been so glorious as the lily, not even that which adorned King Solomon). And what was this particular glory, that could be compared to the beauty in which the lilies were clothed? It was, the author concluded, simply that to be human means to have been created in the image of God, in a unique manner not shared by any other created thing. The lily bears witness to its Creator, but it does not bear the image of its Creator. We as human beings do, and that is our glory. In the quote I posted earlier, you can read how the author of this discourse explained that we resemble God as His inverse image by worshiping Him, and how that worship is our glory because by it we show that we were made in His image.

When this author then turned to look at the birds of the air, he saw how the bird did not worry about providing for himself in the future because the bird did not work nor have indeed any conception of the future. So while we ought to learn not to worry from the bird, our not worrying is different in essence from the bird's, because we touch the eternal and thus understand the future. It is our glory - as a created being with an eternal spirit, not just a temporal body - to be able to understand the worry about the future, and it is our glory to be able to work for the needs of our eternity and our future as the bird cannot work but as God Himself does work. It is another aspect of our being created in the image of God! And when we work, because we understand that it is God who provides for us ultimately as He provides for the bird (which is why we need not worry), we can think of ourselves as working together with God instead of as working for ourselves. And this also is our glory.

So to worship God and to work together with God (as being made in His image we are able to do in a way that nature cannot) - those are the things that the author of this discourse has concluded are the twin glories of a human being. And it makes me excited! For in those two glories we find eternal value and purpose for our lives, in God. Live is not empty and dark, because we have a God who loves us, who is worthy of our love and adoration and praise, in whom we can delight. Neither is life meaningless and despairing, because we have a God with whom we can work as He carries out His great eternal plan - and even the most trivial aspects of our temporal work are woven by Him into that great plan.