I once saw a poster that said “God created me. And God don’t make no junk.” Aside from the horrible grammar, the poster was absolutely spot on.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Genesis 1:26
The creation story tells us everything we need to know about God’s purpose in creating me.
He said “let us make mankind in OUR own image”. Who existed before God created people? The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. So we are created in the image of the triune God. There are a lot of mystical conclusions we could draw here, but the first thing I see is the unity between the three parts. They are a community. They like each other and they want to expand their community to us. (See Jesus’ prayer in John 17).
Now clearly we do not look like God, since He is not a physical being with an appearance. So being in his image is not about having a face and hands. But aspects of God become aspects in us. So we have love, faithfulness, creativity, power, compassion. Anything you learn about God can be transferred, with some human limitations, back to His created people.
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
Psalm 8:4-6 (NIV)
human beings that you care for them? u
5 You have made them a little lower than the angels v
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
I Am Created to Rule
We were created to rule over the creation. In our world of power hungry politics, the term “rule” has a very limited meaning. Power and control are part of it. But rule also means build up, guide, influence, energize. This is how the Father rules us. He gave us the working space to stretch our own creativity and work. What will we do with it?
And God saw that it was good. After all of that creation, especially the creation of man, God was happy with His work. He knew that Eve would eat the apple. He knew that Cain would kill Abel. But even so, this was a good creation. After all of the sin and pain and heartache, and after all of the joy and love and adventure, there would be people who were ready to be Sons and Daughters of God.
God is Building Me Into a Powerful Spirit
So what does that mean to me? It means that God did not make a mistake creating me, just as He did not make a mistake creating a garden with a forbidden tree in the middle. The parts of my life that I see as failures are building blocks that sit next to the parts that seemed perfect. God sees who I am becoming and who I can become. He planned it, and I can trust that He will not abandon the life He created.
So offer those failures back to the Father so He can do something useful with them. Thank Him for the successes that He empowered in you. And look forward to a future where all of those things come together into the powerful, beautiful creature that you are.
