“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them…..Then God saw everything He had made and indeed it was very good”  Genesis 1:27,31

“God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.'”  Exodus 3:14

God is the Creator.  God is the only Creator!  Please do this for me; look up.  What do you see?  God created that.  Now, look to your left and look to your right.  What do you see?  God created that.  Now, look down (I know, you know what’s coming next but I’m going to ask it anyway). What do you see?  God created that.  Okay, about this time some of you may be wanting to push back saying: Now Doug, when you tell me to look all around I’m seeing things I built, that I “created” or at least were created by another person.  So while I completely acknowledge that it may be true that you or some human being manipulated God’s initial creation to reform it, to build it into something different, that does not alter the fact that God created the initial components of it.  So now that we’ve established the precept that God is the Creator, take a  moment just to be silent and contemplate that all things, visible and invisible, God created………..                                          (okay times up)

Where am I going with this? First, God created some amazing, stunning, powerful beautiful things to be sure.  Yet of all the countless things, stars, flowers, waterfalls; and on and on, only one thing did He declare, upon its creation, that He created in His own image.  Again, stop and really ponder this for a moment.  Of all creation, we are the only things, you and I, that were created based upon God’s image

Next, and this may seem particularly obvious, God is talented at what He does.  Not only is He talented at it, but scripture tells us in Genesis, that God was happy with His creation.  That five out of six days of His creation, He saw what He had created and pronounced it “good” (and when God says something is good you can take it to the bank).  Yet after creating You and I on the sixth day, He, God that is, pronounced something different.  He looked at what He had created in His own image and didn’t just pronounce it good; He pronounced it, that is You and I, very good!

So I’m going to slightly deviate off topic for a moment to cover an aspect, sadly at least for me, which seems to come up within some people of faith when we discuss the creation story.  This particular aspect is that, really only man, that is the male was created in God’s image and the female was created in man’s image so, in some way she is an inferior creation to the male creation.  Or perhaps the male is more “very gooder” (I earnestly and deeply apologize to all English teachers out there) than the female.  However, scripture seems very clear in the passage quoted directly out of Genesis; ….male and female He created them.  It was only after creating them both, did He pronounce their creation, very good.

Now let’s get down to the crux of this posting.  You may be feeling insignificant.  The world may be telling you, you don’t matter.  You may have people tell you that, to make a difference, to be important, you must dress a certain way, act a certain way, step all over your fellow person, have more, be more, make more.  If you don’t fit into the world’s more; you are of little to no value.  You are inconsequential.  Don’t you believe it!  You and I are the only things created in the image of God and proclaimed to be very good.    Also, that Image we are created in did not include big houses, fancy cars, fine clothing or expensive jewelry.  Hardly, in fact we were created nude, with the provisions of God to take care of us.

Yet before we get too high on ourselves and too vain concerning our existence, we must remember; an image is not the same, is not equivalent to the original thing.  You and I are not God.  We are not the Creator.  We are not equal to the Creator.  You and I are not as wise, as powerful, as loving, in short; we are not perfect like the I AM, Our Father in Heaven, God Almighty.  Tragically, we sometimes fall victim to the temptation to believe that the image is as good as the real thing.  Jesus Christ warned of that when He replied to the rich young man who came to ask Him a question and called Him a “good teacher”.  Jesus rebuked the young man telling him that no earthly man is good; only God in Heaven is truly Good.

So the paradox of being the only thing created in the image of God is this; we can be confidently humble.  Confident that God sees value in us.  How do we know?  Because God saw so much value in us that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, do die for us and take away our sin.  Humble in that, we are not God.  We can not defeat the power of Satan on our own.  Our plans, our judgements our knowledge, our ability to love is not perfect and, unless we abide in Jesus Christ we can do nothing.  Conversely though, we are promised, and may be the only thing in creation to have this promise, that if we abide in Christ, we can do all things.

Dear Sisters and Brothers; scripture tells us that God created us.  That upon seeing us, He declared His creation very good.  That God loves us and will never abandon us and His Grace will be there for us regardless of what we do.  However, we must also be humble in our understanding that we are not God.  We are fallen and do sin.  That we must have Jesus Christ as our Savior to accomplish anything.  That we are only the image of the I AM, yet even that is enough to find peace and joy and bring praise to the Creator’s Name.

Our Most Gracious Heavenly Father, we are humbled and thankful that You saw fit to create us in Your image and pronounce that creation, very good.  Forgive us when we forget that, although created in Your image, we are not You or equal to You.  Also forgive us when we count Your image to be nothing and value the images of this world more.  Pour out Your Spirit of Truth upon us, testifying of Your Love for us and Your desire to be with us every moment of our existence.  Give us the power to resist the temptation of this world to seek after our own image and instead abide in Yours.  That, in living into Your image, we would bring about Your will for us and the world, through Jesus Christ our Lord and in His Most Holy Name we pray.  Amen