Yet even if nothing produced by human hands were to survive the melting heat mentioned in II Peter 3, this should not make a difference in our attitude toward creating culture in this fallen, temporal world. That’s because it’s God’s world, even in its fallen condition. It’s God’s creation we’re surrounded by, and it's God's stuff we're taking into our hands when we form and shape anything.
Image-Bearers are to engage in ruling over matter even if what we create doesn’t survive past Wednesday. A good chef
creates works of culinary art that don’t usually last more than a day. This glorifies God innately, because a good meal is an outworking of the chef’s image-bearing likeness as “Creator in
Miniature,” ruling well over salmon, rice pilaf and blue cheese. In this act of imitation God is glorified, and chefs
fulfill their God-designed glory and honor: to rule well over God's stuff. (Check out Psalm 8.)
Earth-Rulers fulfill God’s purpose for their own creation when they
mow the lawn. Cut hair. Fix an automobile. Or negotiate the sale of a
house. We fulfill God’s purpose for our creation when we create good
legislation, or write something worth reading, or bake a loaf of bread. It's all God's stuff, and it's our God-given glory and honor to govern well over it. And in this imitation, He is glorified.
I have a definition of “work” taped to the top of my
computer monitor that goes like this: “Work worth
doing is any expenditure of energy, mental or physical, for pay or not, that
rightly manages God’s stuff, and employs my God-given abilities to benefit
others, or prepares me to do so.”
This definition covers a lot of ground. In fact, it covers
the whole of God’s creation. It includes
all legitimate forms of royal work done by
Earth-Rulers. Making cars, light bulbs and computers. Building
roads, skyscrapers and furniture. Playing the piano. Washing clothes. Feeding
the kids...and the dog. Ruling well over matter. All to the glory of God. Today.
That’s wholism 301.
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