We were made in the image of God...to play!

What’s the point of sport? What was God doing when he created humans with the ability to compete in sport?

To answer that question, at least in a small way, we need to continue our look at creation.

When God created, he did so because he enjoyed it; it pleased him. It could be easily said that God is, in his very nature, a playful God.

Proverbs 8:30-31 tells us this:

I was filled with delight day after day,

rejoicing always in his presence,

rejoicing in his whole world

and delighting in mankind.

God does all things, including creating, for his pleasure and the praise of his glory. This is a really good thing because God is good in his very essence! To play is to enjoy something just because it is good. Playfulness is marked by freedom and joy, and it is embedded in the universe's very structure. So, as we think about what it means to be created in God’s image, one of the aspects is that we are made to enjoy life.

God has given us good gifts in his creation to bring us joy and so to draw us closer to himself and others. One of these good gifts is the gift of sport – which is itself just organised and ordered play.

Pastor Jeremy Treat writes:

“Like a father who builds a sandbox for his children, God is honoured and takes joy when his sons and daughters delight in his workmanship. The world, as it has been said, is the theatre of God’s glory, but it is also the playground for God’s goodness.”

This world, with all it has within it – all the people, all the places, all the things – was made so we might enjoy it and so enjoy God.

Now, we’re not naïve, and we know that sport, after the fall, is broken in many ways. However, it is important that we don’t use that as a reason to withdraw from sport, just like we don’t use it as reason to withdraw from many other aspects of culture.

As Treat also writes:

“Although sin and the fall certainly have done their damage to sports, one thing is clear: sports were made good and were made for God’s plan of human flourishing.”

So what?

Well, primarily, will we enjoy the wonderful gift of sport today? Will we recognise and give thanks and praise to the one who made sport for us to enjoy? Will we find joy during the pressure and the pain sport brings, seeking to find out how God is using the differing emotions of sport to draw us more to himself?

Being made in God’s image is a wonderful thing – we have been made in the image of the playful, creative God to go and play and use his creative gifts for his pleasure and ours.

Eric Liddell, the Scottish Olympian, is famously quoted as saying in the film Chariots of Fire:

“I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure.”

Liddell aptly expresses for us what God’s true purpose in sport is: that we would join him in his play. That we would use our divinely given talents and relationships, reflecting the God who made us in his image, and find real joy in him as we do that.

Prayer

Dear Father,

Thank you for the gift of sport that we enjoy so much. Thank you that the joy we feel as we play reflects the joy you felt as you first created. What an honour to be made in your image.

Help us, even amidst the pressures of sport today, to enjoy it and give thanks to you for the many good gifts that are found in sports. Today Lord, as I compete, help me to feel your pleasure.

Amen