People ... they are like animals.

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I also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom. Yes, even the courts of law are corrupt! I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.” I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals. -Ecclesiastes 3:16-18

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I once heard J. Vernon McGee, that popular old fashioned radio preacher, say that he believed in a different type of evolution. He said that people were made in the image of God and evolved to be more like animals than like God. That sentiment resonates with what Solomon writes here and paints a somewhat pejorative view of humanity as a whole. And it is hard to argue with this when you look at all of the violence in the world - some done in the name of God.

I think that John Wesley encapsulated what it means to be authentically human when he said "Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can." When we sacrificially love others we differentiate ourselves from the animals and show ourselves to be divinely made. And when we forgive we reflect the glorious image of our Creator.

Help us dear Lord to be reflections of Jesus Christ. Please conform us into that image in all that we do.

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