Janita Krayniak

Not long ago, I was speaking with a colleague in ministry, and he said, “I just need to drive for a little while under the stars.” I remember being a child looking up at the night sky at the millions of twinkling stars and thinking how vast God’s creation truly is. I think that as long as there has been a night sky and humankind, we have had a deep connection to the stars. And even today when I gaze into the night sky, I am continually amazed and humbled to think, wow … God did all of this … and I get to be a part of it all.  

In Psalm 8 (NRSVUE translation), the psalmist clearly names how humankind is given “dominion” over all the works of God’s hands. That word “dominion” has always bugged me a little, so I checked what other translations said. One said God has made man “over”; other versions said ruler, take control, in charge, or take charge over, but in one particular version, the Holman version of the Bible, it said God has made us lord over the works of God’s hands.  

That one gave me pause. What does it look like for me to be a lord over all the works of God’s hands, and even more perplexing, what kind of lord am I over all these things? Am I a lord who reigns with an iron fist, claiming resources and creation to be mine, all mine? Am I a lord who leads with compassion and care, realizing that everything I have been given is a gift from my benevolent and sovereign Lord? Do I conquer and ravage, or do I tend and nurture? 

I know that I prefer to think of my personal Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as being loving and caring. Jesus was also all-knowing and all-powerful, yes, but Jesus is the Lord who cares for me. Me?! (Spoiler alert, Jesus is the Lord who cares for you, too!) Therefore, as a lord over creation, do I, do we treat the works of God’s hands — all that God has put under my (our) feet (sheep, oxen, beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas) — as gifts to be treasured, with love and care, as Jesus treats us? Or what if we harken back to the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do to you … what does our reign as lord of creation look like? Are we treating creation the way we would want to be treated?  

That is a tough question to answer with a simple yes or no, isn’t it? Maybe Psalm 8 invites us to work on how we care for all that has been entrusted to us? Perhaps we should all take a step outside tonight and gaze into the night sky as the psalmist of antiquity did, and as we look at the moon and stars (and maybe even a planet or two, if you have a telescope), remember how God’s fingers literally made all of this … including each one of us? And then remember, God asked us to care for all of this. I know … wow!  

(Janita Krayniak is the pastor at United Church of Powell.)