AN INVITATION TO REST IN OUR PURPOSE by Elizabeth Garn for Core Christianity
Life can be busy. There are days when I find myself running from one thing to another, trying desperately to cross anything off my already-too-long to do list. On one hand, that’s ok. We do have responsibilities that require our attention, and there will be things we need to accomplish to care for ourselves and the people around us. On the other hand, however, it’s important to remember that doing more is not why we’re here.
I say that because, for many years, I thought it was. I thought my purpose was to be a “Good Christian Woman.” To do all the things that good Christian women do; to work and serve and strive until I had done enough, and then do a little more just in case. The truth, though, is far better than that. Our purpose is not to do more; our purpose is to be the image of God.
We were made in the image of God. I know I heard that growing up. Sunday school classes about the six days of creation surely mentioned it, but somewhere along the line, between flannel graph pictures of twinkling stars, soaring mountains, and Adam and Eve with strategically placed shrubbery, that fact got lost. To be honest, I didn’t understand what it meant to be made in the image of God. As a result, the idea that I’m an image-bearer has always just hovered on the outside of my notice, like an afterthought.
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But it’s not an afterthought or an aside; it’s not even a sub-point. It is the heart of God’s plan for us.
What Our Purpose Is
Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’”
With those words, God declares both what he is going to do and why he is going to do it. He is going to create humanity, and he will do so to place his image on the earth. This is the heart of our purpose! This is what we were created to be: his image.
What does that mean, though? The word for image is a Hebrew word that refers to something cut off, or fashioned, to look like something else. Most of the time in the Old Testament, it’s used to talk about idols, and it almost always implies a physical representation of another thing. The phrase “after our likeness” expands that to include all the other ways we are like God. In every way that we are like God, we bear his image.
In short, to be made in the image of God means that we are his reflections on the earth. It means that we were made to represent him, to reflect his character, and fill the earth with his glory. It means that everyone everywhere has inherent worth, dignity, and value because all people were made in the image of God.
But as with many important topics, sometimes it’s important not just to know what it means, but also to know what it doesn’t mean, too.
