Regarding the sixth day of creation, Genesis 1:27 simply states, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him.” What must have been going through the mind of Michelangelo, the famous Italian artist, as he lay on his back, suspended on scaffolding high above the floor of the Sistine Chapel? History tells us that Michelangelo, beginning at age 33 in 1508, was obsessed with the idea of representing God’s interaction with man. For four years, from 1508 through 1512, the artist fixed his eyes on the ceiling as he worked on the scene known as “The Creation of Adam.” Here God is shown reaching out, and with the touch of His finger, giving life to man, the crowning glory of His creation.
Even though a human artist such as Michelangelo used color and brush to capture the form of man, he could never do justice to what God the Creator had done! God had skillfully woven together 206 bones with muscles that could extend or distend in perfect harmony, allowing the framework to maneuver with amazing agility. He used an intricate system of over 60,000 miles of arteries, veins, and capillaries to tie together a well-coordinated system of organs capable of sustaining the life that He Himself would provide. And He covered His creation with a skin made of common elements, a skin that was able to heal itself when cut or bruised.
God also gave His creation a brain whose 250,000,000 axons control both functions and creative activities. He designed a spiraling link that defined unique characteristics of individuals and allowed those individuals, with a mate, to recreate other persons who are both like and unlike each of their parents!
As David considered human creation, no wonder he felt compelled to cry out, “Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out. You formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body. You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, You watched me grow from conception to birth. All the stages of my life were spread out before You, the days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day!” (Psalm 139: 13-16/The Message).
–Paul W. Brubaker
March/April 2007