Read: Being Human
Someone has said, “Humanity is God’s best idea.” And Brian McLaren weaves the two creation stories together to confirm that idea. Placed in the cosmos, we are made in the image of God, with the capacity for relationship (with God, with others, and with ourselves), and placed in the garden, we are stewards with the responsibility to care for ourselves and the rest of creation.
God defines life in terms of the union of relationship and responsibility. Separate them, and life goes haywire in some way. Relationship without responsibility turns us into spoiled children; responsibility without relationship turns us into toy gods.
The Fall separated relationship and responsibility, and left us as spoiled children who think we are gods. Or to say it a bit more formally, the originating sin produced egotism (a blend of imago dei and imago homo sapien), and the never-ending roller coaster ride between good and evil.
But…humanity is still God’s best idea. We are still God’s beloved. By grace, God still offers us life, and our embrace of it restores the union of relationship and responsibility.
Oboedire 
Dear Steve,
Your devotion reminded me of the words of Ireneaus, ‘The glory of God is a (hu)man fully alive’.
Blessings Jan Hofmeyr South Africa