You are made in the image of God
When God created the universe by speaking it into being he was pleased. When he made man out of the dust of this new earth and woman from the man’s bone he was especially delighted. We are told that both the man and the woman were made in the image of God.
To come to terms with what this means we must first understand that God is a personal God and not just energy or a force. He is personality plus! Every dimension of relationship and interconnection that is so vital for community and family and friendship that we need and hunger after finds its origin in the heart of God.
To be made in the image of God is not so much about physical features but about intellectual, spiritual, emotional and decision making capacities. As much as the plants give us great delight and have a life of their own they are not made in God’s image and so lack these capacities. God has created many very intelligent animals yet even they lack the spiritual dimension that is the central core of being a human being made in the image of God.
Because we are made in the image of God this means we in essence derive our very life and personality and the “ fabric of our being” from him. We are not our own designers though our choices do have a great impact on what lies before us. We did not invent ourselves or “will” ourselves into being. Our heavenly creator and Father and lover of our souls designed us in his own likeness in order to know him and to be known by him. To reject the one in whose image we are made is to deny the central core of our being. Only as we move toward our creator can we discover who we truly are and find fulfilment and true peace in this life and the next.
When our first parents fell in the Garden of Eden though this image of God became distorted and warped. We discover as we go on in our life that so many of the efforts we make to do good are thwarted by our own character flaws or by others. The longing to connect at a deep level as we are made to do is replaced by a fear of trust. Too many times we are either hurt or hurt others and so our enjoyment of life is held back and in many cases arrested altogether.
Having a warped image of God as our inner template though does still mean we long for this perfection and depth yet like a poor recording of the original we produce a lot of hiss and static.
To be restored to the wholeness we were made to enjoy is to come to Jesus Christ. We must recognize he was the only one who has ever lived in the perfect expression of the image of God without distortion. He then accepted the wrath of God against our inner rebellion we have toward the rule of God in our lives. As we accept he died in our place we are then restored to fullness and can live out of the image of God as we were created to do in the first place. Forgiveness leads to fullness. Reach out today and embrace the one in whose image you are made and experience the wonder of restoration.