Becoming Like Jesus: Who Am I?Sample

Made in the Image of God

What makes you, you? Is it the clothes you wear? The sport you play? The place you were born? The name you were given at birth? The things you like? The things you don’t like? The people you like? Is it what you do? Or have done? Is it what other people say about you?

What makes you, you?

Behind this question is another question that cuts even deeper. Behind this question is the question: Do I matter? Am I valuable? Is there something bigger than just the daily grind of life that I’m meant to be a part of?

It’s questions like these that can keep us awake at night. They can leave us feeling insecure and anxious. Wondering what we’re supposed to do, and who we’re supposed to be.

And when we don’t have a clear answer to this question, it can be really tempting to find anything to attach our identity, our sense of self, to.

But here’s the good news, God sees through all of that mess and speaks straight to the core of what makes you, you. As a matter of fact, on the first page of the Bible, in the book of Genesis, God declares your value and worth.

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:26-27 NLT

You are special. You are unlike anything else in all creation. You have been created in the image of our Creator. Okay, but what does that really mean?

For starters, it means that you are more than just atoms bumping against atoms, a random accident put together by chance. You’re more than an animal operating on instinct. You’re not just a body governed by chemical reactions happening inside your brain.

You are a human being made in the image of God. An image is a picture. And you aren't just any picture—you are a picture of the Maker of Heaven and Earth. And that makes you immeasurably valuable. You aren’t just a random picture that someone drew and threw away. You are more valuable than DaVinci’s Mona Lisa. Because the artist who sculpted you is the Master Craftsman. And you are His masterpiece.

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10 NLT

Maybe that’s hard for you to wrap your mind around. Or maybe you get the concept you just aren’t sure you believe it. That’s okay. That’s called being human. God understands. He has so much grace for us. More than we could ever deserve. Because even when we doubt our value. God declares it.

The first chapter of Genesis ends with these words: Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day. Genesis 1:31 NLT

Before this verse, after each act of creation, God said it was good. It was only after the creation of human beings, that God added the word very. Before we are anything else, God wants us to know that we are made in His image, and we are very good.

But, what about when you don’t feel like a masterpiece? What about when these words are hard to believe? We’ll talk more about that in tomorrow’s reading. For now, rest in the truth that before anything else was true about you, you were created in the image of God, and when God looks at you, He sees a masterpiece.

Who are you? You’re a human being made in the image of God.