DJD118 - Image Bearers

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Scripture: 

Ephesians 1:16-19

Starting Question:

When you are being creative, what do you like to create?

Image Bearers

God has created us to be curious and creative creatures. 

As He knelt in the middle of Eden’s proverbial pile of creative clay and formed Adam and Eve, Genesis tells us that God formed the woman and the man in His image. 

He had spent our first week building a temple like no other - a temple that only God could build. The foundation was established by transmuting chaos into order. The walls were a planet. The ceiling was a starry universe. The rooms were expanses of land, water and sky. And then He filled His living temple with life and in the midst of it, He built a special garden - a holy place - at the heart of a holy creation.

Now, kneeling in the midst of that Garden, God formed the image that would reveal Him - male and female He created them. And He placed this holy couple in the perfect place He had set apart for them - The Garden of Eden.

He showed them all that He had made and told them to be, as He was, creative. He said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” He was blessing them with the ability to create more creatures in their image. He gave this command to all forms of life that He created that week - be fruitful and multiply - birds make more birds, fish make more fish, trees make more trees. But humans were special. They were endowed with the desire to grow more like their Creator.

Our curious and creative nature has a purpose. To know more. To be more. It was God’s purpose to grow His image-bearers to become more and more like Him as He walked with them and talked with them. Puppies become dogs. Kitten become cats. But humans are designed to never fully become. We are shaped to seek the image of our Creator. And to grow, ever more like Him. 

It’s an odd act of creative prowess, really. God made us, not to be gods, but to be truly human only as we seek His glory. He created an infinite loop in our character that grows ever more like Him - revealing His character and love - without ever becoming Him. In seeking Him we become our best selves.

The most curious and creative humans - our best doctors, scientists, artists, musicians, philosophers and teachers - are seeking to know more and be more because they are image-bearers. It’s in our DNA. And this excellence in humanity is because we have a truly curious and creative nature, like our Creator.

But only God truly fulfills the longing of the human heart. Earthly wisdom, as useful and amazing as it is, cannot satisfy the deep-seated seeking to know and represent God. And it is only in Jesus that God’s image in lost humanity is rediscoverable and His nature knowable. In worshiping and praying through Jesus our nature is rejuvenated and our curious and creative role as image-bearers is once again possible.

Reflection Question:

How can you use your creative and curious nature to reveal God today?

Prayer time:

Before you pray together, ask: What would you like to say to Jesus today?

Further Reading:
Education, 14-16