Sacred Relationship

Most visitors to Italy are shocked to discover that he stands seventeen feet tall. Michelangelo’s “David,” a statue of a muscular young man with a sling over his shoulder, also weighs six tons. The famous sculptor was only 23 when he was commissioned to create the gleaming white statue for the city of Florence. He was the third artist to attempt the project, and he took three years to complete it.

What you see in the Piazza della Signoria is actually a copy. David has suffered damage at least twice over the centuries. His arm was broken— just 23 years after it was completed—when a political activist threw a chair out the window and struck the statue. It was another 400 years before a hammer-wielding vandal broke off a toe in 1991. The original is now protected in the Accademia Gallery Museum in Florence.

When God formed Adam from “the dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7), He was not creating a piece of inanimate art to be put on display. The Lord “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” No artist has the sacred power to create life.

God is still intimately involved in the act of creation. Describing the Lord’s hand in forming his body while in his mother’s womb, David wrote, “My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret. … Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed” (Psalm 139:15, 16). His language has the echo of a Master Sculptor.

The final product in the creation of the first human was not a lifeless chunk of clay or even a robotic machine. God created a human being intended for real interaction, intelligent thinking, and genuine connection. The story of Creation speaks against the cold, distant theory of evolution and presents to us a personal, meaningful God who cares for us. Creation is the antidote for loneliness in our world when we understand the heart of God.

Apply It:

Pray the prayer of David today: “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Dig Deeper:

Job 10:8, 9; Ecclesiastes 11:5; Isaiah 44:24