I’m at camp until Saturday, having spent the first part of this week preaching at Mountain Home. Pray for us who are busy and traveling this summer! Camp means a lot to me and the week is special in how different it is from the other 51 weeks of the year. In one way, I get up a lot earlier than I do any other week. I’m not complaining though; I love admiring the natural beauty that each new morning brings. God’s creation is a marvel.
In the creation account, Moses writes that God made man in His image. The idea is a fascinating one, but it’s also one of the more debated and written-about concepts in all of Genesis. We can know that we—people—are different from the animals, the trees, the stars of the heavens, etc. What we don’t know is what exactly God had in mind when He decided to make us “in His image.” What was it about Himself that He wanted us to have that no other aspect of His creation would?
One idea that I like to consider is the fact that things of nature—be it a tree, a sunset, a thunderstorm, a faraway constellation—can only illustrate the creative power of God; we can see the beauty of God’s handiwork in the purple and red sunset every evening…but that’s it. A sunset or a storm can only show me how beautiful a painter God is or how epic in scale His creation is. But that’s it.
A tree can’t be compassionate.
An ocean can’t sacrifice.
A star can’t forgive.
There are things nature can’t do, things God is able to do that we would never know about if we only considered the wonder of His physical universe. I, on the other hand, can be compassionate. I can sacrifice. I can forgive. I can love. I can demonstrate all of those wonderful personality traits of my Father in Heaven. I don’t do those things as well as He does, but that’s my fault, not His. He made me to be in His image.
It’s up to me to live up to it.
~ Matthew