Question: Do fish know they're wet? Do bees know that the honeycomb is sweet? Do songbirds know that their voices are beautiful? And to the same point, if you'll pardon the anthropomorphism--do wheels know that they are round?
I think the answer to all these questions is "no".
Each of these things is only doing what they were designed and created to do. Fish were made to swim. That is their nature. The bees build their hives to make honeycomb. That is their job. Birds use their voices to communicate, just like we do. But each of them, in their own way, are useful to humans. I believe they were all created by God's good pleasure for us to enjoy--for entertainment or for food; to warn us of danger or for use in medicine. All of nature has a purpose. (Even the mosquito. But that's another story.)
And just like the wheel, man has invented machines and tools to help us accomplish greater and greater things. Each simple machine (e.g. the wheel, the lever, the inclined plane) can be used to make more complex machines (e.g. pulleys, scales, wedges), and so on. Each part has its own function, its own reason for being, to contribute to the work that the entire machine performs. Each machine, each part of each machine, was designed for a specific purpose. The same goes for the animals.
So what about us? What are we designed for? Biologists say we are like the animals, and we are designed chiefly to procreate. Taken to the extreme, there is an entire industry devoted to procreation, and it has devolved into the "adult entertainment" sub-culture. Moralists say we are here to help each other. Where one has a need, another has a surplus. We may give of our surplus to meet the others' needs. Or we may devise a system of barter or trade (economics) to buy and sell goods and services, so that where there is a surplus, a price can be negotiated with the one who has the need. Taken to the extreme, people become greedy, and look out more for themselves than for others, which can lead to riches or to hoarding, depending on your circumstances.
What does God say we were made for? After all, He was the designer and chief architect. The Westminster Catechism says, "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." What would happen if, before we did anything, we asked ourselves how our action--our going, doing, or speaking--would glorify God? We might lose some bad habits pretty quickly. But before long, we would get used to godliness, and not spend time thinking about it.
St. Augustine wrote, "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You." All of the stuff we do on our own, for our own purposes, will not be remembered long. All the things we make with our hands will be burned, unless we make it for God's purpose and to His glory.
Genesis 1:27 says we were all made in God's image. All of us: male and female, black and white, short and tall, thin and the rest of us. Everybody. If we all looked in the mirror and saw the Creator rather than our own image, we might be more prone to produce the fruit of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control (Galatians 5:22).
If we all thought more about who made us than what we want to make of ourselves, if we all thought more about what He purposes in His heart for us to do rather than what we in our flesh want to do, if we all spent more time talking to Him rather than talking to other people, reading about God instead of reading newspapers or magazines, listening to Him instead of listening to radio, TV or other devices--if we did all of that, His Spirit would dwell in us so deeply that we would glorify Him without even thinking about it.
Many of us can think of people we know that are truly Christ-like. If we asked them about it, they might not realize that what they are doing is out of the ordinary. They are just doing what God asks them to do, day in and day out fulfilling the reason that they were created in the first place.
But we should be careful comparing ourselves to other people. While the Bible clearly admonishes us to develop relationships with other Christians, and to engage in corporate worship, we want to be careful to avoid unfair comparisons. If we gaze too long at the creation, we will forget to set our eyes on the Creator. We might begin to covet their spiritual gifts, or their riches, or their possessions. And that is sin. Or we might start to be prideful of our position, or of our riches, or of our gifts. That, too, is sin.
"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." (Hebrews 12:2-3)
Many times, married couples start to take up each other's mannerisms--the way they smile, or cock their heads, or raise their eyebrows. As time goes on, they actually many times begin to resemble each other. In the same way, some people are attracted to their pets because of familiar physical traits. Some may even groom their pets (or themselves) to play up the favorable comparison (see photos above). Friends, let us be so attracted to God that we recognize His image in us. Let us spend so much time with Jesus that we begin to resemble Him in our walk and in our words. Let us be so controlled by the Spirit that when people look at us, they see Him. That is what we were made for.
