Have You Tried Everything? A Biblical Way to Improve Your Body Imageনমুনা

Whose Image Are You Wearing?

Though I feel the pressure to wear all sorts of images, God’s expectations of my image seem significantly more reasonable than mine. In Genesis 1:27 we read how God made humankind in his own image. In the previous verses, the Bible says God made animals and sea creatures like “their kind.” But, when God creates people, the language changes to say we’re made in God’s image. We are not the same kind as Dachshunds or dolphins. We are the same kind as God.

We bear God’s image. It’s not something we must put on each day or get surgery to replicate. Instead, we have aspects of him beaming from our insides out. Bearing his image means we show all of creation who God is through our existence.

The further I try to separate myself from the original (God) or satisfy myself in my image apart from him, the more frustrated I feel. This pull to be an image apart from God—to reflect my own wants and desires instead of his—is how our original image became fractured. Adam and Eve’s sin marred our perfect image. Jesus came and lived the perfect life in the image of God. Through his death and resurrection, we can be reconnected with the one whose image we bear.

Idols blur the lines, confusing us into believing they offer what we need to restore our image. They claim to help us “fix” everything we feel is broken about us. They convince us that we can re-create our bodies into our own masterpieces and that we’ll be happy with how they turn out. But idols aren’t originals. They don’t have that kind of power. They’re just God copycats, and that’s where the trouble begins. Idols can’t create.

Image-wearing confuses our value, identity, and worth as we layer on aspects of images we admire. We were created to bear God’s image. It’s a perfect fit. Wearing others’ images will always feel as awkward as trying on last year’s shorts in the middle of winter.

Thriving in God’s assignment to bear his image makes me feel genuine and alive. Without changing my body, I can show others his love, mercy, goodness, and compassion. Are you trying to awkwardly wear someone else’s image when all God asks is that you bear his?