Made in the Image of God

Conversations with Cinthia

Today Cinthia discussed what it means that we as human beings are made in the image of God. We say all kinds of things about ourselves, and not all of the things we say are true. We work hard to define ourselves, to figure out who we are and grasp some kind of identity for ourselves. But these attempts will never make us free until they line up with the truth about ourselves, which is rooted in Who God is and who He says we are. We look around for those we can emulate, but, until we know and emulate our Creator, we will not figure out how to be our unique selves. The more we know God, the more we will want to be like Him, and the more we are like Him, the more we will be the unique creation He meant us to be.

Cinthia discussed some of her own struggles to figure out her identity. She was adopted into a family with which she had little in common in terms of appearance, giftings, etc. She felt, she says, like she was on a train called “life” and did not know how she got on it, where it was going, or where she was supposed to get off of it. She even perceived herself to be on this train fraudulently, to be on the planet by some unplanned accident so that God had to figure out what to do with her now that she was here. Living under the weight of this, Cinthia worked hard to “be something” to justify her existence. But one day, after many, many conversations about this with God, after repeatedly telling him how she felt and what she thought about it all, Cinthia heard God say to her, “Now you know where you came from. You came from Me.” Learning to see God as her reference point and to ask Him who He meant her to be changed life drastically for Cinthia, although it has been a process.

While Cinthia’ particular struggle may be most resonant for those who have been adopted, all of us struggle with identity. Some of this relates to family issues; we may not see ourselves as having much in common with our biological families or may identify with them strongly, happily or not. We are adopted into God’s family through Jesus, and we don’t always know how to relate to this family. But, regardless of our experiences with those who reared us or those around us now, human beings struggle to define ourselves (and some might say our society has particular difficulties with this because we are so concerned with defining ourselves individually) because each of us was created by God to be something we cannot understand without Him. Each of us was His idea, and He was happy that He made each of us. Regardless of connections with family members or similarities and differences with them, we are still one-time-occurring creations, and there is no one like anyone else. Until we connect our identities to their Source, we will lack the information and power we need to be who we were meant to be.

In our society, people seem to be struggling with this more than ever. People are even changing their bodies at drastic levels, but we are not our own creators. We are not able to create who we want to be, whatever our society may tell us. Human beings simply don’t have the tools to create themselves. We have to learn to accept our status as created beings who were not consulted about who we were meant to be, but who are far more amazingly-designed than we realize or know. Learning to trust our Creator with who we are is difficult because trust is difficult and because we tend to have ideas about who we are, some of which are not accurate and may cause pain. But we start by learning to trust God when He says we were beautifully and wonderfully made and that He was glad when He made us. Until we believe Him and ask Him what He had in mind for us, we will not find peace with who we are.

You have to find out who you are, and you have to do it by going to your Creator. Ask Him why He made you. Even if you identified with your family or were like them in many ways, you are still the only one of you. (Even identical twins do not have the same fingerprints!) You are truly original, and you have to find out who you are. You came straight from God, from His heart, soul, and mind. He wanted to make you, and He did. That is where you come from. He wants to be with you forever. Think about that: God made you because He wants to be with you forever. Although He has taken great care with the particulars of your life, God created you for eternity, not just for this life. He wanted to get you here more than He wanted to make it “the right time” for everyone else. He used this fallen world to get you into existence, and that for Himself. The first step in knowing who you are is to know Him; the second is to know the level of value He places on you.

Cinthia explained, “If I know God, I know myself better. If I act more like God, I like myself better.” Cinthia offered several verses (Revelation 22:13, Colossians 1:15-17, Isaiah 44:6-8) to help us begin looking at this. He is the First and the Last. We look at the Son and see the God Who cannot be seen. We see His original purpose that He started in Him and holds together in Him. He is the God of Angel Armies. He is all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-powerful. God is the Doer. Then she discussed Genesis 1:26-7, which explain that we were made in His image, in the image of the Trinity. She likens this realization to what it was like for her as an adult who had been placed for adoption in infancy to meet her biological family, to have an “aha” moment in which she realized she looked like them, shared traits with them, and suddenly made sense to herself in ways she had never understood.

God is behind relational success. God wants us in relationship with Him first and then with others. This is why relationships impact us deeply whether we are engaging in them or avoiding them, and it is why our relationship with God is foundational to our self-images and to the health of our other relationships, while our self-images other relationships are significant concerns to God. He made us like Himself, and we can borrow His ways of doing relationship. Unfortunately, sin makes us less and less like Him. We are left with our reference point. God wants us to be like Him, not the other way around. This is why verses like Matthew 19:4 actually give us permission to be who we are. God did not miss something when He created you; He made you the way that He made you on purpose. What you have learned about who you are, what you believe about who you are, what others think about who you are -- those things can be mistaken. But God is not mistaken about how He made you.

Cinthia elaborated by listing some specific ways God made us to be like Him. We are creative, wishing to continue, expand, and express ourselves. We are relational. We are spiritual with a desire for spiritual connection, knowing there is more and desiring to question. We are emotional beings. (Yes, God has emotions! We see that He has always had the capacity for happiness, sadness, and anger, though we do not see Him experiencing the emotion of fear until He became human as Jesus. God is very emotional and not at all insecure, but, as a human, He opened Himself to this experience. Even Jesus first indicates fear at facing the cross. What a brave and strong friend we have in Jesus.) We have choice. And there are more ways!

Go to God. Ask Him Who He is and how He wants you to learn this, and be willing to pursue knowing Him as He wants to be known. Ask Him who you are, who He meant you to be. Then get to know yourself, to be yourself more fully based on the design by which you were made. This is what it means to be yourself, and it comes not by performance for Him but through relationship with Him. Walk with Him, and be everything He dreamed of you being.