I am Human

What does it mean to be made human? God created us out of dust into our intricate selves. He put so much craftsmanship and love into making us. But why did he make us human?

When I look up the question “what does it mean to be human?” I get a list. It says “to have the ability to communicate systematically using words, symbols, body gestures/posture, and facial expressions.” It also says “to make our own decisions and bear the consequences of them… to inherit our genes and behaviors from our parents… [and] to be unique and special as a species.”

If we start with the first point, we can count four different ways to communicate. God gave us options on how to communicate as humans. But the important part is that He gave us the ability. We have the ability to communicate because we are meant for community. We all communicate in our own way which is part of being a human. The action of speaking is a rarity. Humans are the only living things on this planet that can speak. Why? Because we matter that much to God and most importantly, our voice matters.

So if we look at the next point, we get to make our own choices. We have the ability to choose. God isn’t forcing us to do anything. Because He made us human, we have the ability to make decisions and we have to bear the consequences for them. Humans mess up and make mistakes so we have to understand that when we make a bad decision, we have to face the consequences of those decisions. However, the ability to choose is unique. Most animals survive off of instincts, but humans are able to make a calculated decision.

When we view the third point, we can see that we inherit our behaviors from our parents. God is our heavenly Father. Not everyone realizes this. Those who let God father them start to reflect His character and those who follow their earthly parents start to reflect them for better or for worse. So the closer we draw to God, the more our inherited traits start to bloom. That’s right. We already have God-like traits within us because we are Gods children.

Lastly, we are “unique and special as a species.” We are a unique species and we are different from one another. God created humans to be special for a reason. If you didn’t catch the first week of this series, it goes into depth about how we are all unique like snowflakes. I linked it here!

So being human means we have the ability to communicate in a positive way or a negative way, we can make choices that either benefit ourselves and others or are the cause to harsh consequences, we can either inherit traits of Godliness or inherit faulty traits from other humans, and we can either try to blend in when humans were made to stand out or embrace our uniqueness.

We have a choice. We can’t choose our circumstances or the fact that we are human. But we can use the traits only humans are given to make a difference. God made you human for a reason. To give you a voice, to give you a loving heavenly Father, to give you a choice to go out and love others, and to make you absolutely unique and beautiful in His eyes. Never forget how amazing you are just for being human.