Image
Read Genesis 1:26-31.
There is a reason we were made in God's image, and the rest of creation is not. It's not that God ran out of ideas, or that he didn't have any creativity left because he was tired by the sixth day so he just made a "little him." God made us in his image so that we could carry out a specific task: to rule over creation, to have dominion over all that he had made. God made us in his image, gave us the ability to choose good and evil, to make moral choices, because only creatures with that sense and that ability could be God's agents in guiding creation toward the way it should go. We don't look like God, but God gives us enough of himself so that we can "rule" or steward his creation.
God gave human beings three things to do in creation, according to Genesis. First, be fruitful and increase in number. Second, fill the earth. Third, subdue it. Well, we've done pretty well at the first two tasks. (Rich Mullins used to say we do well at tasks that are fun to do.) But what did God mean by "subdue" the earth? Some take that as permission to abuse and use and destroy the earth, but the larger sense as you read Genesis (and the rest of the Bible) is that we are called to be stewards, caretakers of the creation God has provided for us. Not to pillage and harm, but to care for and protect. The image of God means we are the ones who represent God and who do what God would do in regards to creation. It's ours to enjoy, ours to use, not ours to abuse and hurt.
This includes not just the physical world, but our fellow human beings as well. Do we "steward" our relationships well? Do we care for others, those we know and those we don't? Life is a precious thing, a gift, a creation of God. It's ours to steward. We care for our own life by getting enough rest, eating well, building relationships and not working ourselves to death. We care for others by listening to them, providing for those God has entrusted to us, seeking avenues for all to know they are loved and wanted and created by God. We stop judging and start loving. We seek to see each person the way they are: beloved children of God. That's a hard thing to do sometimes. When they are living in a way we don't agree with, when they have harmed us, when they belong to a group we've been taught to fear—that's when the biggest test of our stewardship of all creation comes to the forefront. How will we treat the neighbor, the stranger, the outcast?
We know how Jesus treated them—he welcomed them. He sat with a Samaritan woman. He spoke to Greeks and Romans. He touched lepers and he healed blind eyes. He saw those who were ignored by everyone else. He was never in such a hurry that he missed seeing people. Can we say the same? I can't, but I pray you can. By God's grace, I'm further along than I used to be, but I'm not yet where I ought to be. I want to be a better steward, a better bearer of God's image to the world, so I'm working on it. But it begins by remembering these things God has called me to. This is who I am: I am made in the image of God and called to steward the gifts he has given me.
There is a reason we were made in God's image, and the rest of creation is not. It's not that God ran out of ideas, or that he didn't have any creativity left because he was tired by the sixth day so he just made a "little him." God made us in his image so that we could carry out a specific task: to rule over creation, to have dominion over all that he had made. God made us in his image, gave us the ability to choose good and evil, to make moral choices, because only creatures with that sense and that ability could be God's agents in guiding creation toward the way it should go. We don't look like God, but God gives us enough of himself so that we can "rule" or steward his creation.
God gave human beings three things to do in creation, according to Genesis. First, be fruitful and increase in number. Second, fill the earth. Third, subdue it. Well, we've done pretty well at the first two tasks. (Rich Mullins used to say we do well at tasks that are fun to do.) But what did God mean by "subdue" the earth? Some take that as permission to abuse and use and destroy the earth, but the larger sense as you read Genesis (and the rest of the Bible) is that we are called to be stewards, caretakers of the creation God has provided for us. Not to pillage and harm, but to care for and protect. The image of God means we are the ones who represent God and who do what God would do in regards to creation. It's ours to enjoy, ours to use, not ours to abuse and hurt.
This includes not just the physical world, but our fellow human beings as well. Do we "steward" our relationships well? Do we care for others, those we know and those we don't? Life is a precious thing, a gift, a creation of God. It's ours to steward. We care for our own life by getting enough rest, eating well, building relationships and not working ourselves to death. We care for others by listening to them, providing for those God has entrusted to us, seeking avenues for all to know they are loved and wanted and created by God. We stop judging and start loving. We seek to see each person the way they are: beloved children of God. That's a hard thing to do sometimes. When they are living in a way we don't agree with, when they have harmed us, when they belong to a group we've been taught to fear—that's when the biggest test of our stewardship of all creation comes to the forefront. How will we treat the neighbor, the stranger, the outcast?
We know how Jesus treated them—he welcomed them. He sat with a Samaritan woman. He spoke to Greeks and Romans. He touched lepers and he healed blind eyes. He saw those who were ignored by everyone else. He was never in such a hurry that he missed seeing people. Can we say the same? I can't, but I pray you can. By God's grace, I'm further along than I used to be, but I'm not yet where I ought to be. I want to be a better steward, a better bearer of God's image to the world, so I'm working on it. But it begins by remembering these things God has called me to. This is who I am: I am made in the image of God and called to steward the gifts he has given me.
Amen! We will all be working to be better stewards (or should be) until the day we die.
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