The Imago Dei
Genesis 5:1,2 This is the history of Adam’s family. When God created people, he made them like himself. He created them male and female. And on the same day he made them, he blessed them and called them “humans”.
We each have a way of seeing ourselves – what we think we’re worth, how we think we compare with others. We call it our “self-image” – how we see ourselves. If only we could see ourselves the way God sees us because that change of perspective … changes everything!
People used to tell me all the time that I walked like my father. “What does that mean?” I used to ask them. They’d just smile.
And then one day I saw myself on television. It was a fifteen-minute interview and I was completely and utterly shocked at what I saw. All my mannerisms, the way I moved and spoke and gestured, the facial expressions even – it was just like looking at my father. I had no idea.
Those Christians would have us believe that we’re made in the image of God. Theologians call it the Imago Dei. “What does that mean?”
Genesis 5:1,2 This is the history of Adam’s family. When God created people, he made them like himself. He created them male and female. And on the same day he made them, he blessed them and called them “humans”.
It means that, whether we’re male or female, God made us to be like Himself. And honestly, the more I look at people and I see how brilliant and creative and beautiful and surprising and different and delightful they are, the more I come to the conclusion that, “You know something? I think that these Christians have it absolutely nailed. The Imago Dei is no hoax.”
But for our sin, we are in a small way what God is in the infinite. And my hunch is that if each of us would just look in the mirror and see ourselves the way God sees us, we would whisper in awe, “I had no idea!”
When God created us, he made us like himself.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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