Mankind!

Driving home the other day on Platteview Road approaching Highway 31, I was struck by the creativity and ingenuity of we humans.

The yellow centerline and white roadside lines – just painted – were bright, straight, and helpful.  So what about those lines?  Somebody – somebodies – found chemicals in nature that could be extracted and mixed to make paint.  And it was a substance that would not wash away in the next rain nor fade away in a few weeks.  And the lines were uniform – precisely five inches wide and straight.  They were not laid down by a person with a paint tray and a roller.  Some kind of machine was made out of metals from the earth heated, molded and assembled by people in order to efficiently and beautifully put down those lines.  What a process and a very good help!

And then the road itself:  not just a path carved on the earth and topped with gravel with its dust and possible ruts but something smooth and clean.  What a blessing!  My mind went to our closest “kin” – monkeys.  There are some who say that humans are just a step or two past monkeys in the evolutionary process.  But just that stretch of road throws a huge curve into such thinking.  Has a monkey or team of monkeys ever made a major improvement in their lifestyle?  Just think of that asphalt road.  Man extracted oils from the ground, often from very deep in the ground, and processed them leaving a tarish substance.  Then man mixed the tar with gravel and heated it in order to make it cohesive and moldable. Furthermore, man devised from the “dirt” – the ground – machines in order to put the tarry substance on a prepared area and packed for a smooth surface.  What a deal!  What monkey has even remotely done anything of the sort?

And the corn fields on either side. What a sight!  Rows of corn stalks about 6” apart and reaching high into the sky.  Beautiful!  The walls of corn along either side of the roadway are impressive.  What monkey has improved its food supply as has man?

And fences.  Again, the process required to make barbed wire and steel fence posts is a very complex set of actions.  And the process of surveying the land that laid out the precise boundaries of one person’s property so to know where to put the fence.  Private property and management of such again mark we humans.  And monkeys?

And power lines along the roadway!  What an incredible thing is it that humans can use steam or water pressure to turn turbines to spin off electrons and ship them down wires to run motors and lights all over the country.  Electricity is a Wow!  I don’t understand it but I sure do like it!  

It struck me that mankind is vastly – radically – unbelievably – different than a monkey!  Outside of digits on appendages and some mobility and social similarities, there are only mega differences between humans and monkeys.  Those few “similarities” have confused some who see monkeys in man’s image (in reality – not even close).  But monkeys are just nothing like we humans.  

Then my mind went to God and men.  There are a few similarities because God made me in His image which means I am relational, creative, moral, and worshipful.  BUT – I am so much less than God!  I am so a “monkey” when compared to humans in my similarities to God.  God is so much beyond my understanding and abilities.  Those man-made things along that stretch of roadway sure made me impressed afresh with my God.  How infinite and amazing He is!