Genesis 1 Talk

[Here is another talk that I gave at Newman's Praise and Worship Night from early this year. It's a reflection on Genesis 1:27 and being created in the image of God.]

When I was preparing for this talk and I was reading over Genesis chapter 1 I started thinking about how I would react if God came up to me and said “Reanna you are perfect just as you are, you are so very good, you are exactly what I created you be!” To be honest, I think my first reaction would be to laugh. What I mean is I would probably laugh nervously at this statement and then start to question what exactly God meant by that. You see, I often view myself as unfinished. It’s not that I don’t believe that I am what God created me to be, I just feel like everything I do in life is to help me grow closer to becoming the person God created me to be. So if God came up to me and said “Reanna you are perfect just as you are” naturally I feel like I would want to ask God “Are you sure?” because perfect? That's not me. 

            Genesis 1:27 states “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” You see all of us were created in the image and likeness of God and this is what sets mankind apart from all the other creatures and things that God created. We are the only beings that God created with the likeness and image of himself. I find this hard to believe because I don't think that I am half as beautiful as the view of sunset on the beach in Hawaii, and I am not nearly as elegant as a Bengal Tiger. It is hard to believe that I was created in the image of God knowing that the way I look is nothing compared to the beauty of these things. Having said this, the real fact of the matter is what I as human hold to be true isn't always what God knows to be true.

            If we go back to the first chapter of Genesis we are told that every time God created something, God observed the world and thought that it was good, but it wasn’t until after God created humans that God looked at the world and thought that it was very good. Learning this has given me some perspective, you see though God did create the sunset and the Bengal Tiger to be beautiful, to God both of these  things are simply good. When God looks at me, his opinion changes, I’m not just good, I am very good. I think it is interesting how I can look at the sunset or a Bengal Tiger and admire the beauty of both these things, but yet often times when I look in the mirror I don’t see the beauty that God created within me, a beauty that was created in His image, a beauty that God sees is very good.

        Often times, when I look in the mirror, I see my flaws, when I look in the mirror I see my insecurities and things I wish I could change about myself. I focus on how I would be better off if I weighed less, I think about how different my life would be if only I were a few inches taller, somehow my eyes always close in on the yellowness of my teeth and the marks on my face that like to come and go as they please. When I look in the mirror this is what I see, I see all of these imperfections, when I look in the mirror I don't see the beauty that God created within me.

        And if you think about it, who could blame me? We live in a world that is constantly telling us that we aren't good enough. We can't go anywhere without some kind of reminder about the changes we need to make in our lives in order to be beautiful, in order to be accepted. Turn on a tv and you can find literally hundreds of commercials which encourage you to buy the next big thing so that you can look better. We learn from an early age that in order to be accepted we have to have the coolest clothes, and the best hair. We spend hundreds of dollars on products each year that alter our appearance. And why do we do these things? We do it because deep down inside of all of us, is a need and a longing to be loved and accepted. Deep down inside we long to hear that we are beautiful, that we are good, and that we are perfect just the way that we are.

        There is only one being in the entire universe that is beautiful, good, and perfect just the way that they are, and that's God. The world can tell us that we aren't beautiful, we aren't good, and we aren't perfect, but Scripture tells us that we are created in the image and likeness of God. This means that when God created us, he did something special, when God created us, he put glimpses of himself into our being. Therefore we are perfect by association, we are perfect because God made us in his likeness and God is perfect. We are good, because God is good and we are beautiful because God is beautiful. God does not look at us with the same perceptions of the world, when God looks at us he does not see any imperfections, rather God sees the beautiful beings that remind him of himself. God looks at us and sees something that isn't just good, God sees something that is very good.

        The problem that we face today is that the world has conformed us to be different from the true version of ourself, we grow to become people that are different from what God created us to be. We forget to love ourselves and others just as God has loved us, we sin, and we take the blessings that God gives us for granted. All of these things have the ability to change our opinions and our perceptions of ourselves, but they can never change God's perception and opinion of us. I look in the mirror and I see my imperfections, my failures, and my sins, but when God looks at me God looks past all of these things, and God focuses on the true me. God looks at me and he sees the Reanna that he created in his image, God sees the person he created me to be, rather than the person the world has made me to be. Knowing this makes me want to be better, to do better and live better and I think as disciples this is what we are called to do, I believe that we are called be the versions of ourselves that God created in his image. God calls us to live in the world without being of the world. God calls us to be the versions of ourselves that he created rather than to conform and be what the world tells us to be.

        I've learned that I do not need to look to the world for approval and acceptance. I do not need the world to tell me that I am beautiful. I don't need any of it, because in the end the only approval I ever needed was God's. It is from God that we get our dignity and worth, this is the grace that he gave to us since the very beginning. When God created us with the likeness and image of himself, God set us all apart from any other creature in the universe. God has loved us from the very beginning, he has always thought that we are beautiful, and he always will. When God looks at us he sees beauty in it's truest and purest form. We don't have to do anything to get this approval from God, he gave it us in our creation.

        So the next time you look in the mirror, remember that you are beautiful. Remember that you were created in the image and likeness of God. Remember that when God looks at you he sees something that is very good.