willard points out in genesis 1:28-30 that “we are responsible before god for life on the earth. however unlikely it may seem from our current viewpoint, god equipped us for this task by framing our nature to function in a conscious, personal relationship of interactive [Italics added] responsibililty with him. we are meant to exercise our ‘rule’ only in union with god, as he acts with us. he intended to be our constant companion or coworker in the creative enterprise of life on earth. that is what his love for us means in practical terms. . . . lamentably, we fell away from our intended divine context [the spiritual death at the fall] and from the task for which we are by nature fitted. we mistrusted and distanced ourselves from god and then, very naturally, from one another. in our arrogance and fear we flounder through our existence on our own.”