You probably already know the story in the verses to the left — God spent six days creating everything in the world, and it was all good. He said so himself at the end of every day! And as his final act, he created human beings — in his image.
It’s easy to quickly pass over that as you read the account of creation. And if you’ve been a follower of Christ for a long time, you’ve heard it over and over again.
But take a moment to let that sink in. You and I — we’re made in the image of God.
Maybe you struggle with understanding what that really means. J.I. Packer sums it up well when he says:
Image means representative likeness — which tells us at once that we should be reflecting, at our creaturely level, what Genesis 1 shows God is and does. Therefore we should always act with resourceful rationality and wise love, making and executing praiseworthy plans just as God did in creation. He generated value by producing what was truly good; so should we. We should be showing love and goodwill toward all other persons, as God did when he blessed Adam and Eve (1:28). And in fellowship with God, we should directly honor and obey him by the way we manage and care for that bit of the created order that he gives us to look after, according to his dominion mandate (26, 28)
If you think about it, the significance of God making us in his image is huge. We are a visible representation of the very nature of God, and we are meant to live that out moment by moment, day by day. Yes, sin got in the way and marred that likeness, but the foundation of our existence is still there. We are living representations of God himself! And because of that, we have this innate desire to be whole, to be fully restored to our perfect selves.
We experience that desire daily in this internal struggle to matter. It’s part of who we are, because God created us that way. He created us to want so much more than this current life or fallen state can give us.
That’s why we search for significance and meaning. Even though part of us is broken, marred, we search, often looking in all the wrong places. Instead we need to find our significance and worth in our Creator God — drinking of the eternal water that will permanently satisfy our unquenchable thirst for more — where we’ll find all the answers we’ll ever need.
POINTS TO PONDER
In your search for purpose, what traps do you fall into? Where do you find yourself looking for your significance and worth, rather than looking to God himself?
What does it mean to you to be made in the image of God? How does that design and plan impact the way you live your life?
