My housemates and I have a young dog we recently took through obedience classes.

She is rather energetic, but also extremely intelligent. Through the classes, we learned how to get her to respond to commands such as “stay,” “come,” and “leave it.” Our authority over her is very clear; she knows that we have dominion.

However, there is an added aspect that makes her more willing to respect that dominion. She knows that we care for her. Whenever we return from being away, she eagerly greets us at the door with all the love she can express.

This is much like the dominion God bestows on humanity in Genesis 1:26. We are made in God’s image, and just as He has dominion over everything, He has allowed us to have dominion over the creatures and plants around us.

If we are asked to care for what we have been given, how much more loving is God’s dominion over that which He created?

We have the capacity to love people and our pets fiercely, getting a taste of the love God has for us in His dominion over us.

He created us and then when He was faced with the possibility of losing us, He used His dominion to display sacrificial love in order to save us (John 3:16; John 15:12-13).