There’s no time like Rosh Hashanah to think about the big picture. God created the world with great potential and only the creation of humans on the sixth day enabled that potential to be realized. A midrash in Chullin 60b reveals to us that while the earth brought forth grasses on the third day of creation, they grew underground, unable to sprout above soil until the needs and will of a human being to pray for rain brought vegetation to fruition. All of creation hovered in potential until Adam was created and developed a relationship with the Creator.
And so we carry that legacy now thousands of years later. We carry the responsibility to bring forth potential from our world. From the most mundane material object to a divinely created soul we are blessed to care for, we are tasked with developing the potential of each in its fullest form.