Who is Man?

"Where do I see God? Frankly, it takes more faith to see all this and say there's no God. He's everywhere. He's in everything." John Wendt, first time visitor to Kenya

At night, we wake to the bark of baboons right outside the tent and a lion's roar marks a kingdom, thankfully, a distant domain. A crocodile slides silently from the river bank to the murky brown water in the morning darkness, feet from our tent. He moves down the river, completely concealed except for a single flashing eye when we aim our flashlight just right. The sun peaks up over the horizon, shoots deep red and vibrant orange through the whole sky. Hundreds of zebras, gazelles and wildebeest roam the open fields, stretching farther than your eye can see. As we pass, the warthogs grunt, shake their straggly beards and, quick as lightning, dash away squealing with tails straight up in the air.

A cheetah, smooth and lithe, stalks an oblivious herd of antelope. Patiently, he moves upwind, always keeping us and dinner within sight. The elusive rhino appears and then, even faster, is gone. The impossible happens when a family of five elephants silently disappear in brush no higher than our heads. The creativity of God. He whips up breathtaking sunrises and sunsets, all unique but equally as awe-inspiring. The strange and the beautiful, the silly and the terrifying, all coexisting on one plain. Humanities greatest accomplishments, most inspiring creativity, fall flat before God at play.

And yet.

3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? 5 You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet:

7 all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, 8 the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. 9 Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Psalm 8:3-9