Genesis 1:26–27
In Genesis 1 the story of God’s creation comes out but the first thing we can see is that there was an order to the creation. It was not random but it is that it followed a plan of God. First God created the things, and then on the sixth day God created man.
So why did God create man last? God created man last because we are the purpose of all his creations - the most important thing.
As people, we struggle throughout our lives to answer the question ‘who am I?’. We have so many questions: why do I exist?; why am I alive?; what is my purpose? Descartes once said ‘I think, therefore I am’. But that seems so empty and unsatisfying. Am I important or valuable because I can talk or because I speak five languages?
Scientifically looking at it I exist, and looking at things physically I have a value but then looking at it physically, my physical worth is not more than that of a chair or table, or indeed any animals. Am I faster than a cheetah? Can I fly like a bird? No, of course not.
Our value is not in what can be seen but in what cannot be seen, the invisible, the spiritual, and this the Bible explains to us most precisely.
Genesis 1:27 tells exactly who we are and where our true value lies:
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
We are the image of God and that is why we are precious. When God looks at us why would he treat us as precious? God looks at us as precious because he put his own image inside us and he can see this always.
Parents love their children and think they are beautiful no matter what other people may say because they can see their image in their children. With God it is the same. We come from God and he can see a part of himself in us.
It is so important to realise our own preciousness. When we forget why we are precious then that is when we start to self-torture saying ‘Oh I’m so insufficient’, and we start to compare ourselves with other people.
The root of all psychological problems like depression, anorexia, self-harming, lies in self-torturing. Self-torturing means not loving myself. But if we realise deeply that we are the image of God then we will never self-torture, because when I torture myself then I torture God.
So what is the image of God?
1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
God is love so the most precious thing that I have inside of me and the source of my own preciousness does not lie in my looks, or intelligence, or talent, but in my image of love that comes from God.
I am precious because I was made to resemble God’s image of love. So now we know why we are precious and that we have this most precious image of love inside of us, we must look after this image well and live a life of love. This is when God can be revealed most powerfully.
Anon.
