What's in a Name?Sýnishorn

Every living creature gets a name

When God creates the first man, Adam, He gives him an important task. Just as God Himself has given a name to the day and the night, the sky and the seas, so the man is to give a name to every living creature. He is God’s ambassador and steward. He is to “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) That is a huge responsibility!

Adam carried out his task. He “gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.” But he disastrously failed in the larger task of being a steward over all living creatures. Due to his and his wife’s rebellion against God, the ground is cursed and creation is “subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it” (Romans 8:20). The apostle Paul even writes that “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8:22), for it longs to be set free from its bondage to corruption.

Does the fact that humans have been appointed as stewards of creation, influence your view of nature and environment?