Genesis 1:27 - So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
One of the most important aspects of knowing who we are, is this idea that we are people who were created in God’s image. We spend so much of our lives trying to determine who we are, looking here and there for meaning and value. All people want to know that they are valuable, whether that be because of pride or because of feelings of worthlessness. People search and search, longing to find themselves in whatever they can.
One of the greatest sadnesses of our day is that rather than look to God for the answer to our problem of value in our identity, we look to our own man-made ideas as solutions. We begin to build our own communities around things that we see in ourselves, hoping that these things will finally give us that feeling of purpose and value. And yet, there is something in each of us that knows that we are all a part of the same community, made up of the same stuff, and originating from the same place.
Throughout history, men and women have looked at one another and focused on what makes us different from one another. Our skin color, our hair color, our size, our shape, our language, etc. Rather than appreciating these differences, we have made these differences a source of conflict. Perhaps this is because we have forgotten that we all have much more in common than what appears on the surface.
Every human being, regardless of how they look or where they are from, has been created by God, in the image of God. If you have been created by him, and you are meant to be a reflection of him in the world, this gives you both value and meaning. You don’t need to find your value in whether people acknowledge or praise your external attributes and you don’t need to find meaning in who you are on the surface as so many people do today.
What matters most about anyone, and what keeps us all seeing each other properly without discrimination is this truth. We are image bearers, every single one of us. When we treat others with contempt we mar that image. When we try to make ourselves more important than the one who gave us the image, we mar that image. So much pain has been experienced in the world because we have forgotten this truth. So much harm has been done to others because we don’t see how we all come from the same creator, who has put in us inherent value and worth.
If you are searching for yourself, look to the creator and he will show you just how valuable you are. If you are looking at your fellow human beings and are seeking to divide based on surface level qualities, look to the creator and see that it was not meant to be so. If you are longing for something that can unify the conflicts in humanity, look to the creator who unites people through the savior Jesus Christ. We are not an accident of nature. We are the created image bearers of God, and this is who we will always be.
