Genesis 1:26-28, Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
We can’t make a wise purposeful move without acknowledging our own history and how it came to be. This becomes the foundation for everything in our lives. It is impossible to make sound decisions about our spiritual lives without the realization of where we have been and just how destitute we are without Jesus. We can never forget that we were created for Him, by him, and in His likeness.
While we are created in His image we also have the unique ability in all of creation to reject that image and make our own. While the fall was no surprise to God, He planned to construct a people to reflect His glory. He has not forgotten our created purpose – to reflect His image to a lost world. He seals us with His Spirit and redeems us, earthen vessels that we are, with the sacrifice of His only begotten Son. Humanity will live out its purpose, in part if not as a whole. He will be seen in creation.
We get so distracted by our jobs, mortgages, family issues, relationships, and recreation in an effort to find fulfillment in them. We have a much higher calling than the human calendar and clock to which we so often enslave ourselves. We are made to be like Him! That’s the point of it all. (Ecclesiastes 12:13) We are made to be like Him and to serve Him. That was the purpose of our parents in the garden, and that is the purpose of each one of us today. Adam and Eve were both modeled after Him, we are inhabited by Him. We are being conformed daily to His image. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
I wonder if we are self-aware? That is – if we really know who and what we are. I think at best we struggle to know our true purpose in any real sense. This should be the guiding truth of our lives – “that God is and that we belong to Him.”
There is no higher calling, no greater purpose, and no greater blessing than to serve Him!