Given Rule

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."  ~ Genesis 1:26

While everything on this planet and in the universe was created by God, we humans hold a significant part in the Master plan.  There is no other species of plant, nor animal that can say with certainty that they were made in the image of our loving Father.  God made us not only to praise Him, but we were given dominion and rule over the animal world and charged to take stewardship and pride in his creation of Earth.  However, we must be careful!  I have seen two extremes to our charge:  1) That we can bring ruin and destruction to God's creation for no apparent reason, or 2) That we put the rest of God's creation as our equal, or even a higher priority then the human race.  Both are wrong!  Since creation is part of God's glory, we need to treat it as such, but let's never forget that the human race is His crown jewel that he sent his son to die for!  We should be servants to each other first and foremost and we should protect each other first and foremost. We should be fighting for our neighbors rights just as much as we fight for the rights of animals.  In fact, dare I say, we need to be sure we are showing the same grace and care to each other and the human race as we would to our planet and the animal world, but to many times the planet and animal world are given priority over us.  Remember who you are, a child of Christ, and you should treat others with the same respect and dignity.  All in all, let's not forget that all creation deserves our best!   ~ AMEN