Imago Dei

I started this last week, but got busy and forgot to post it.




I was blown away by God this morning.  I say this like it's unusual.  I'm always blown away by God.  Yesterday I finished my 'Bible in a year' plan and began again this morning with Genesis.  As I was reading and recounting the creation story that I have probably read over a hundred times, I was filled with a brand new sense of wonder and awe at the majesty of God.  I love how His Word is alive!

It is mind boggling how the story of God conjuring up the created order out of nothing could ever be read with the same enthusiasm that one reads the 'finance' section in the newspaper, (I don't read the finance section, but I can imagine that it's fairly riveting), but I confess that I was guilty of it this morning.  I found myself blazing through the first chapter and I was halfway before I felt the gentle nudge of the Spirit's conviction of my complacent behavior and His leading to immediately confess it.  I was almost scanning over one of the most wonderful truths EVER and was giving it hardly any mind whatsoever.  (In fact, I was checking off that I had read that chapter in my YouVersion app as I was reading, if that tells you where my heart was at during this particular moment)  I confessed my heart to God, and asked for forgiveness for my legalistic, box-checking approach to the living Word of God. I also prayed that God would breathe new life into these words, and that He would transform my heart and mind to that of His Son.  That's when it all came alive. Shocking, I know.  I pray and God listens and answers.  Why do I not start EVERYTHING that I do like this.  It brings to mind a lyric that I have quoted a few times in this blog from Elevation Worship, "give me faith, to trust what You say, that You're good and You're love is great.  I'm broken inside, I give you my life."

Anyways, back to Genesis 1.  This passage blew me up today:

27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."29 And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so.31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

We are created in God's image, meaning that we bear witness to the nature and character of our Creator!  The details of this mystery are unknown and will remain so until that wonderful day where we stand with Him face to face. What we CAN see, however, is our Creator all over us or rather, in us.  Because of the Fall, the creative order was tragically cracked and perverted from the top down, but we can still see the beauty of God's design pouring from us in everyday circumstances.  Our emotions, our desire for community and intimacy, even our own imaginations were given to us to express our love and adoration to an infinitely intimate and imaginative God.  Even as I write this, I am reminded of how He shaped me.  From my body type to my eye color, from my sensitive soul to my goofball personality.  I was etched with the mark of my Creator, and through Christ I was made a son of His glorious inheritance!

It's amazing how infinitely life-giving His Word is.  Praise God for opening my heart and mind to the truth of the Gospel, and that I am His child and He is my Father!