Made in the Image of the Creator
A fresh canvas, a blank piece of paper, a clean slate, fresh plowed soil, a kitchen counter filled with ingredients... a new beginning. What is your favorite way to create? All of us have some "creator" in us. We might argue that we don't because we can't draw or paint or produce some grand sculpture, but the truth is we were born to create and it is often at New Years that we allow ourselves to think about making something and, if not an object or product, we at least think of making for a good new year.
I like the start of a new year because whatever happened last year is behind me. Over the next couple of weeks, I will throw away papers from my desk that probably sat there for weeks or even months waiting for me to do something with them. Whatever it was didn't happen so I will let it go, and if it was important, I will get another run at it. But I give myself permission to let go and start over. There is something cleansing about a new year, but being part creator isn't really as simple as cleaning out a drawer or throwing some stuff away, as satisfying as that may be. Creators use their experience and knowledge and available materials to make something worthwhile. It might be as simple as a piece of cheese toast or as complicated as the starting of a new business, but every year, every day, every moment we are giving the opportunity to let the "creator" in us come out and play.
In the beginning, God set the world in motion with a spoken word: "Let there be light," and so it began. And after days of creating the most magnificent world, God spoke again and said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...and let them have dominion over all we created."
John tells us in the fourth gospel that Jesus was with God at the beginning. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, all together all with one thought mind to create a world and the humans that would inhabit the creation and have dominion over it. Made in the likeness of the divine with the ability to create in our DNA.
And to cut right to the point. We messed it up pretty early. Selfishness and rebellion set in and we disobeyed the one thing we were asked not to do, but in God's amazing grace and love, he set in motion a recreation. He found a way for our mistake to be covered over, and he gave us a way to be reformed, recreated, reborn into a Kingdom that would never end.
So this year, we get a fresh start. As followers of Christ, we get the opportunity to use our new year, our talents, our resources to renew and restore people and places that are broken. As image bearers, we get to leverage the creator in us to do something that is new and eternal.
Let's make it a great year!
Your Time with God’s Word
Genesis 1:1-5, 26-27, 31; John 1:1-4, 9; Revelation 21:3-7, 21:22, 22:6-7, 13, 17, 20-21 ESV
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