0830737308
Trade Paperback
92 pages
Jun 2005
Regal Books

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Excerpt:

I don’t know about you, but when I read this verse, I find it pretty hard to believe. Me? In God’s image? Has God really lowered His standards or something?

Most of the time, I feel about as “in God’s image” as a ham and cheese sandwich. But my feelings aside, the Bible is pretty clear that when God puffed the breath of life into the first man and woman, it wasn’t just oxygen that filled their lungs. God jump-started the hearts of Adam and Eve with a jolt of His very own image—the creative impulse that caused Him to invent them in the first place. Weird, huh? God invented people.

It appears that the creator had so much fun calling the universe into existence, and then decorating it, that He just had to share that joy with somebody. So God didn’t stop with giving the first folks free will and intelligence. He went right on ahead and gifted them with an itch to create.

And He didn’t stop with good ol’ Adam and Eve, either. God’s creative fingerprint has been stamped on you and me as well.

The truth is, God hasn’t lowered His standards at all. We’ve lowered ours.

CREATED TO CREATE

We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10

In his paraphrase of the Bible called The Message, Eugene Peterson rewords Ephesians 2:10 like this: “God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does . . . work we had better be doing” (emphasis added).

Jesus died on the cross and rose again so that we can become coworkers with God in the work He is doing. And that’s a bigger job than you might think! The Bible is chock full of stories about the work God does: rescuing people, answering prayers, healing people, forgiving people, listening to people, revealing truth, reconciling enemies to each other—but the very first work we see God doing at the very beginning of the Bible is creating. That’s what gets the whole story going!

Have you ever wondered why you love beautiful things? Why your breath catches in your throat at the sight of a rainbow, the sound of rain on the roof or the smell of your favorite flower? Have you ever wondered why you like to draw, cook, write poetry, design clothes or decorate imaginary houses? Isn’t it weird that hundreds of songs have been written about sunrises, but people keep writing more? Here’s one:

God’s glory is on tour in the skies,
God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
Madame Day holds classes every morning,
Professor Night lectures each evening.

Their words aren’t heard,
their voices aren’t recorded,
But their silence fills the earth:
unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.

God makes a huge dome
for the sun—a superdome!
The morning sun’s a new husband
leaping from his honeymoon bed,
The daybreaking sun an athlete
racing to the tape.

That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies
from sunrise to sunset,
Melting ice, scorching deserts,
warming hearts to faith.

—Psalm 19:1-6, The Message

Something all human beings have in common is a love for beauty. Sure, beauty is defined differently in various places. In some East African tribes, both men and women stretch their earlobes to hang down to their shoulders. We think it’s disgusting; they think it’s gorgeous! No matter where you go, you’ll find people decorating their surroundings and “improving” their appearance. We are delighted by beauty! Know why? We’re fascinated by beauty because God is!

Read the book in the Bible called Song of Songs, or sometimes Song of Solomon. No, really read it. Yes, now! Okay, if you just have time for one chapter, read chapter 7. This chapter is a celebration of the passion between a man and a woman, but it’s also a celebration of the passion with which God pursues us, His love! (Giggle-fest Warning: Song of Songs has some pretty sexy word pictures in it, so if you want to read it seriously, don’t do it at a slumber party!)

Here’s another verse from the Bible that reveals how God feels about you:

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing (Zephaniah 3:17).

God thinks you’re beautiful. In fact, He knows you’re beautiful, because He created you that way. God created you to enjoy the beauty He has created, and He created you as part of that beauty. And if that wasn’t enough, He created you to add your beauty and creativity to His ongoing work!

I know, I know. Some days (okay, most days), I don’t feel beautiful, either. Some days (most days), I feel like this:

Now go ahead . . . go crazy. Draw what you feel like most days in the space below.

But if it’s true that God has created us in His image and delights in us, aren’t we kind of making Him out to be a liar, or spitting on the beauty He made (us!), by disagreeing with His standard of beauty? Whoa.

Not good.

If God, the creator of the universe, says that you and I are beautiful, created in His image to delight in and to create more beauty, and we take a long, hard look in the mirror and can’t see what He could possibly be talking about, then we’re insulting God.

I’m willing to bet that that’s something neither one of us wants to keep doing. But how do we stop?

At some point in time someone has probably said or done something that made you feel less than the beautiful, “in God’s image” creation that you are. Try to remember one of these times right now. In my memory, I’m walking down the hallway at my middle school, and Tommy Winter, the hottest guy in sixth grade, smiles at me. I smile back, just as he says, “What’s up, Hawkins?” (which is my last name), only when he says “Hawkins” he makes the “Hawk” part into a gagging sound and pretends he’s throwing up on my shoes. I did not feel beautiful and “in God’s image” at that moment.

Now, as you’re watching that memory replay (there may be more than one), make a conscious effort to see Jesus in the picture. The reality is that Jesus was there with you during that memory; you just didn’t see Him. At the very same time the cruel thing is said or done, look Jesus in the face and hear Him say to you: “[Your name], I delight in you! Let Me quiet your feelings with My love. And then we’ll both sing and dance for joy, because you are re-created in Me to join My Father in doing beautiful things!” You might feel kind of weird at first. But the Bible is God’s Word to us—that means God wants to use its words to speak to you. That’s what words are for, right? So let God’s Word be the final word in those painful memories you’re carrying around in your head.

Use the space below to write out (or draw) a few more memories, and allow Jesus to speak His Words of healing into your spirit.

It’s all a matter of whom we choose to believe: God, the creator and lover of all that is beautiful, or Tommy Winter (or whoever has tried to hurt you in the past). After a lot of thought, I’m going with God. Honestly, it wasn’t that hard of a choice. Tommy Winter wouldn’t know beauty if it punched him in the nose (tempting!).

In the next five sessions, we’ll take a look at five beautiful areas of your life in which you can shine in God’s image. These are areas in which God has uniquely fashioned you to be you!

So here we go!