By David ReayMonday 10 Apr 2017LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read Genesis 1:26-27
26 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.”
27 So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. (NLT)
What are you exactly? Here is one answer: you are iron, enough for a medium-sized nail. You are sugar, enough for a few cups of tea. You are sulphur, enough to rid a whole dog of fleas. You contain phosphorus, enough to tip a few thousand matches. You contain enough fat to make seven bars of soap (give or take a few!). And over all that you have lots and lots of water in you.
But that doesn’t sound right, though it might be true from a chemical point of view. The fact is that we are more than just the constituent elements of our bodies. We are more than just bodies. We were made by God to have a unique status, reflecting something of his own nature. We were made by God to relate to him, to others, to our world. We are much more than a random collection of molecules.
We might have gone far away from what God intended us to be, but in essence we retain our humanity, our capacity to love and be loved, our capacity to make moral decisions. Our humanity cannot be reduced to scientific formulae. We are defined by our relationships, especially our relationship with our Maker.
As St Augustine said, “You have made us, Lord, for yourself. And our hearts are restless till they rest in you.”
Blessings
David Reay