Human: Image of God

Genesis 1:26-2:3

“The original meaning reflects the practice of setting up an image or symbol that signifies sovereignty, something similar to a national flag. As images of God, the human beings represented the locale where God rules supreme. In the ancient world, royalty were perceived in this way. They were either considered divine themselves or they represented the deity to their people” Diane Bergant 

"The whole human being is image and likeness of God, in soul and body, in all human faculties, powers, and gifts. Nothing in humanity is excluded from God’s image; it stretches as far as our humanity does and constitutes our humanness." Herman Bavinck

The twofold commission given the human couple in this story,“subdue. . . .Have dominion,” is also royal language. Thus, one can say that this is a royal couple that exercises authority over the rest of the created world. Still, their authority is limited. The woman and man are not gods; they are images of God, representatives responsible for God’s world and accountable to God in carrying out this responsibility. Every woman and every man is made in God’s image and has been commissioned to stand as God’s representative in the management of the natural world. Diane Bergant

“Despite what we often hear about this passage, it’s not just a call to make babies and start farms. It’s not chiefly about doing more for God. Instead, this is a beautiful call to imitate the creative work God himself accomplished in creation. It’s about being who he created you to be. Filling the earth is about filling the empty spaces with beauty and using your gifts and talents to show the world the creative nature of its God. Having dominion is about bringing order—ordered hearts, ordered relationships, ordered businesses, ordered homes—out of chaos. We must know him, be with him, and rest in him if we are going to reflect him to the world.” - Elizabeth Garn

“You’ve heard the story, you know how it goes, Once upon a garden we were lovers with no clothes Fresh from the soil we were beautiful and true, In control of our emotions to till we ate the poison fruit. And now its...Hard to be, Hard to be, Hard to be A decent human being” David Bazan

“If you can’t see your toddler in the house and it’s quiet, they’re not somewhere helping orphans. They’re somewhere testing your perimeter for weaknesses.” Jon Acuff

“We are not to reflect on the wickedness of men but to look to the image of God in them, an image which, covering and obliterating their faults, an image which, by its beauty and dignity, should allure us to love and embrace them.” - John Calvin

The whole concept of the image of God is the idea that all men have something within them that God injected . . . and this gives him a uniqueness, it gives him worth, it gives him dignity. And we must never forget this. . . . There are no gradations in the image of God. Every man from a treble white to a bass black is significant on God’s keyboard, precisely because every man is made in the image of God. One day we will learn that. We will know one day that God made us to live together as brothers and to respect the dignity and worth of every man. - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“God doesn’t make junk, and doesn’t junk what junk what He has made.”  - Al Wolters

Picture 1/2
Colossians 3:9-11
Ephesians 4:17-24 

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit. . . . Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” - C.S. Lewis

Passion in the midst of indifference.
Intentionality and slowness in the midst of fragmentation and burnout.
Community and vulnerability in the midst of isolation and pretending.
Trust and submission in the midst of self making and re-invention. 
Sacrificial love and generosity in the midst of selfishness and empty accumulation
Expectation and hope in the midst of brokenness and chaos.