“I Want To Know About That!” (Genesis 1:26)

When I was child growing up in Hawaii, my father and I enjoyed watching a Japanese television show that visited different parts of Japan, learning about the origins of all things Japanese. The title of the show, loosely translated from Japanese to English, was, “I Want To Know About That!”

Now, over forty years later, I am enjoying a program on the internet with a similar theme, “Japanese Style Originator.” The origins of a wide range of topics including tofu, kimonos, Japanese garden design, and candle making have been presented. The show is hosted by a Japanese television news anchor who is joined by a panel of celebrities who are quizzed about the topics during the show. Most of the panel are surprised that they do not the origins of their own culture.

I believe  most of us have a yearning to learn about the origins of our own culture and ethnicity. I relished my opportunity to visit Japan, my original birthplace, and reconnect with my ethnic roots. But I believe the yearning to understand our origins is even deeper than this. Many years ago, I began to ask this question-Why do I exist?

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Genesis 1:26 (ESV)

Like the celebrity panelists in the Japanese program, I was quite surprised to learn what the Bible reveals about my own origins.  In spite of my biology teacher’s’ attempts to inculcate the theory of evolution, I was now learning the Truth for the first time. I am not a culmination of random genetic mutations, arising from a single cell, fortuitously coming together over billions of years.

I am created, not a product of evolution. I am imbued with a moral character, one that is capable of discerning good and evil. I exist to care for this world and honor my Creator.  I was made in the image of God!

Why do we exist? I want to know about that!

God provides the answer, affirmatively and definitively!

Keep teaching me God!

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.