What is your destiny? Why do you exist? Is there a reason, a purpose,
for human life? These questions have baffled the greatest thinkers and
philosophers down through the ages.
We ponder the meaning of life. A child naturally wonders, "Where did
I come from?" As adults we ask, especially in our twilight years: "Is
this physical life all there is? Does my life have a purpose?"
Think about your own existence. Can you see a purpose for your own
life with its ups and downs, its mixture of joys and sorrows? Do you
sense lasting value in its toil, challenges and uncertainties?
Just why were you born? In the pages that follow, we will
explore this, one of the greatest of all mysteries.
Man's place in creation
Three thousand years ago King David considered the apparent insignificance
of human beings when compared to the vastness of the night sky. As a
shepherd, he had spent many nights outdoors gazing at the star-studded
expanse overhead. Notice the thoughts he recorded in Psalm 8:3-4: "When
I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the
stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of
him, and the son of man that You visit him?"
David wondered why, considering the magnificent and vast universe,
God is so concerned with human beings and their future. He realized
that, within the larger scope of the vast heavens, we can appear to
be insignificant. Yet he perceived that, in the plan of the great Creator
God, no part of God's physical creation even begins to compare with
His purpose for human beings.
Understanding that only God can reveal His purpose for creating us,
David continued his reflection on the destiny of man: "For You have
made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with
glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the
works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen-even the beasts of the field, the birds of
the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the
seas" (verses 5-8, emphasis added throughout).
