Today's word in the big words of the Bible devo series is “In His Image.”

The last day of creation, when God created male and female, reveals the heart of our amazing and incomprehensible God. Think about this. God is complete in Himself. Long before creation He had the worship of the heavenly hosts but they were created to worship. Was the heart of God restless? We cannot know what was in the mind of God except by what He has revealed to us in His word and the echoes of his creation.

Here is what we do know. Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1:26-28.

We exist because of God’s love-filled heart. It is a heart made for fellowship and worship. Why God would crave the fellowship of others is hard to fathom but that is His heart, to give and to receive love. The very fact that we exist is testimony to the loving heart of God who chose and delighted to give us life. He did not need mankind but he chose to bless us with life so that we could live in fellowship with Him. Without His love we would not be.

Here is the amazing part. You and I were made in the Image of God. You and I and every human who has ever walked this earth are image bearers of our creator! Think about that. You are made in God’s image. You were deliberately created by God in His image. In some important and amazing way you bear His likeness. He is the God of the universe and you are imaged after Him. Even after the fall when Adam and Eve fell into sin, remnants of that image remained.

Tomorrow we will look at what this means, to the extent that we can understand it. But for now, for today, reflect on the fact that in creating you, God planted something of Him in you. You are made in His image. This separates you from the rest of creation. There is a nobility to men and women because we are made in His image. 

Solomon made note of this in Ecclesiastes 3:11 where he says, God, “has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” This is why our hearts have a hole that can only be filled by God Himself. As people made in His image, He has placed eternity in our hearts: a yearning for something more, for our real home and our real destiny here and for eternity and that is always with the One who Created us. If you long for something more that you find elusive, this is why! The only way to satisfy that longing as an image bearer is to know the image maker.

Father, thank you for loving me and making me in your Image. My heart does long for something more because of that eternal seed you planted in my heart. Help me to find the fullness of life in you because you made me for you. Amen.