We humans often feel small in our own eyes and are aware that we are tiny creatures in the midst of a huge universe in all its grandeur. We appear for a little while and walk the earth like shadows until we vanish. We stumble because of a small stone; we die, or are beset
by some tiny microbe that leaves us languishing in our beds for long years, longing for death but unable to find it. Human beings are weak creatures: for the sake of some small despicable lust we can forget our dignity, squander our prosperity, destroy our families, and perhaps lose everything — even though we know it is nothing more than a temporary fleeting pleasure.
Do you wish to know who you really are? You are the subject of God’s love, the recipient of His care and concern, so much so that it might appear He has forgotten the whole world for your sake. When He created you, “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). He looks upon you and sees in you His image and likeness. In you is a mind; you have free will; He has given you the gift of being capable of love, and being drawn towards the Creator who satisfies you, and who imprints His own nature upon you. He rejoices in you. He created heaven and earth to pass away some day (Matt. 24:35), but you He created immortal to live forever. Behold then, your soul, which God values above the whole world, as He said: “what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world , and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).