Friday, January 6, 2012

Self-image

This is a modified version of a devotion that I wrote for the website FindYourTrueBeauty.com:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
~Genesis 1:27
This is one of those verses that seems to just keep popping up everywhere I turn. And every time someone has referred to it, they have been referring to our self-esteem and the self-image we have of ourselves as humans. I guess that for me at least, it’s easiest to remember that God made mankind out of the dust of the ground then it is to remember that He created us in His image. 
I think as humans, we tend to beat ourselves up too much, and I’m sure Satan just has a hay day when we are too busy beating ourselves up to be of any use to Christ. Satan enjoys it when we look at ourselves and all we see is a pile of dirt, when we can't get past our failures, or what we see as imperfections. But that isn’t what God sees. God created us in HIS own image, that means that when God looks at us, He see's Himself. We were created in the image of God! How awesome is that?! So why is it that we can’t see past the materials used in creation to the final product? 
As a mom, one of the examples that I keep coming back to is a picture that one of my kids drew for me. My child was the creator of that picture. He can tell me exactly what he sees when he looks at it, and he can tell 100 other people the exact same thing. But none of us really sees what he sees. We might see colors and possibly some shapes, not the giant dragon with the pointy tail that is standing there looking back at us. Obviously God's a much more talented creator than my son was 2 years ago when he drew that picture, but I don't think the problem is the creator. I think that it is us that can't see past the materials used. When I looked at my sons picture, I saw crayon scribbles on white paper. When we look in the mirror, we have to look past the dust, past the physical medium, to the masterpiece that God created.
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