Adam, of Genesis fame (no, not the band—the Bible) had a big job. Were you aware of that? God had told him to name all of the animals that He had created. I can visualize how that went. I picture Adam sitting naked on a rock in the Garden, in the shade of a luscious tree, surrounded by beautiful flowers growing along the banks of a meandering stream of crystal-clear water.
It makes me chuckle as I try to picture how he came up with such names as elephants, hippopotamuses, gnus, and do-do birds. Why didn’t he name those black and white striped animals striped horses instead of zebras. Where would the name Zebra come from anyway? But none of that is the point. The point is, he had a big job to name all the animals, which included birds and fish and every living thing. Wow! How would we have handled that job? Would we have run out of names?
The truth of the matter is we all have big jobs, jobs that were not just given to us by God, but jobs which God commanded us to do. God didn’t ask Adam to do that job. He told him. Can you see God saying to Adam, “Hey Adam, will you please do me a favor and name all the animals?” I’m sure there weren’t and caveats such as “when you get time” or “if you’d like to.” He doesn’t ask. He tells. He commands. There’s no “would you consider”, or “if you want to”—simply, “do it”. God’s kind of funny that way.
Here’s the deal. The big job God has assigned to us is far easier than Adam’s big job, and yet we often fail to do it. He’s given us all the tools necessary to do it, and yet we don’t use them. Our simple, yet huge job, is to love God, and love others. No more, no less—and yet we find excuse after excuse not to do it. Oh sure, we claim that we love God, and we love others, but do we as we should? Are we committed to do it, or do our own agendas often get in the way? And biases. And prejudices. And, yes, even our own stuff—our baggage, our laziness, our lack of letting go of control. A good solid look inside will present a lot of answers.
What might it have been like if Adam hadn’t done his job and done it right. Would we now have giraffes as house pets or be putting horseshoes on dogs?
What will it be like if we don’t do our job? Will Christianity slowly fade away? Will evil win? No, God won’t let that happen. What will happen, however, is that our eternity will be doubtful. That’s pretty high stakes.
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