An Old Question, Part Two

May we continue our conversation from last week?

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness..."
~ Genesis 1.26

The first part of that amazing declaration is "Let us make"

We are created by God. We are part of God's creation.

Along with the trees, mountains, birds and sun, we ARE God's creation.

We humans, however, have a unique role that was given to us. A role that only we can fulfill.

We are (as far as we know!) the only creatures who can love God in return.

We are the only part of creation who can give voice to the wordless praise of all creation.

As Jeremy Begbie says in Resounding Truth,

In the human being, creation finds a conscious answering voice, a mortal from the dust of the earth who can know and respond to God's love as a creature, love God in return, and as a part of this response, voice creation's praise.

This is a beautiful picture and a beautiful role.

What grace that God entrusted this to us!

What tragedy that our role as worshiper in creation has twisted into worshiper of creation.

Including worshiper of self.

Oh.

Just as I have twisted my role as God's representative, I have twisted my role of offering worship on behalf of all creation.

...disproportioned sin
Jarred against nature's chime, and with harsh din
Broke the fair music that all creatures made
To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed
In perfect diapason, whilst they stood
In first obedience, and their state of good.
~ John Milton "At a Solomn Music"

However.

What a beautiful word, "however".

God gave us grace through Christ.

Jesus. Man. God.

A man who gave complete and un-distracted praise to God.

A man who acted out God's wise rule in the world.

He is our worship to God ~ perfect praise from us to God, creation's perfect voice.

He is the image of God to us ~ perfect representation of God, being a wise steward of the earth, He brought healing, restoration, hope and peace from God to earth.

Jesus helped and healed many people, like this. He made blind people see. He made deaf people hear. He made lame people walk. Jesus was making the sad things come untrue. He was mending God's broken world. ~ Jesus Storybook Bible

The most exciting part of this gift, this grace? We are invited to join Him!

As Begbie says,

Our privilege is to find our true place in the world, to be conformed by the Spirit to Christ (II Corinthians 3.18) so we can start to be true image bearers ourselves, reflecting the covenant love of God to the world...In Christ through the Spirit we can recover our calling as God's image bearers, as the people of God exercising wise stewardship. This is part of authentic "spiritual worship" (Romans 12.1).

What joy! What grace! What gift!

By reflecting God's image to the world around us, to the tiny piece of creation (human and non-human) in which God has placed us, we are voicing the praise of creation back to God.

What a beautiful circle.
*paintings are Christ and Samaritan by Henryk Siemiradzki and Christ Healing the Blind Man by Eustache Le Sueur