Have you ever wondered what the Trinity—Father, Son and Spirit—were doing in eternity past? Before the galaxies, before the earthworms, before the giraffes, what was the triune God doing? C. S. Lewis would say, “In Christianity, God is not a static thing—not even a person—but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance.” In other words, God—the three persons—danced around each other in self-donating, loving relationships. God lacked nothing. Within the Trinity was perfect love, goodness, relationship, and joy. So, why did God make us?
Love Begets
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
love gives
Love has a tendency to give. Boy meets girl, they start a relationship. That relationship begets a marriage.
Families grow and so on. The overflow of the triune’s love gives creation. And, at the culmination of all of creation, sitting at the top above the moon and sun, the good Niagara Falls, the good stegosaurus, was the best of all of God’s creation: humanity. Out of the goodness of the triune relationship, God made humans in his image.
He created male and female to have dominion and to rule over all of creation. We had perfect fellowship with God, and we enjoyed the figs from the trees, patting the lion on the head, and the coolness of the river on our bare feet as we walked through Eden. We also enjoyed each other. Adam and Eve, our first parents, lived without anxiety, despair, jealousy, hatred, and fear. God made the world and everything in it, and it was good.
gospel starts here
When we think about the gospel, we should train our minds to go back to the very beginning. The gospel begins with God, then humanity, then sin. We tend to bypass the first two on a race to get to the bad news. Yet, the gospel is good news. We celebrate that God created out of love, not need. We celebrate that God created out of goodness, not loneliness. We celebrate that God created out of joy, not boredom. And, we celebrate that we bear God’s image. Humanity—though separate from God, since he is creator and we are creation—still maintains the ability to do God-like things: create, love, divest of power, dance, commune with others, and so forth. Humans, in a partnership with God, rule, reign, and seek the good of the world around us. In the fabric of our humanity, God infused us with the ability to do beautiful, redemptive, and meaningful things.
We celebrate that God created out of love, not need. We celebrate that God created out of goodness, not loneliness. We celebrate that God created out of joy, not boredom. And, we celebrate that we bear God’s image.
The next time you think about the gospel or share it with someone, put on your dancing shoes and consider the Trinity orbiting in self-donating loving relationship. The gospel starts with God, and so should we.
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Daily Question
When you consider that God made you from an overflow of love and goodness and made you to be like him, how does this inform your self-image? How do you see yourself imaging God in your life?
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I love the idea that God created out of an overflow of love. That is because he IS love, he had to give as this is part of what love is; to be completely others-focused. It is crazy to think that I was made strictly because I was loved. God didn’t create me then love me but rather the very reason in which I was created was because I was loved. The very first action towards me was love. How amazing!
I am created in His image – to create from a place of love, goodness and joy. If that is what he sees in me and the purpose I have in this life, then I can do so much to create love, goodness and joy for others. Nowhere in this discussion does it mention creating for perfection or creating to achieve great memorable things. I can create on each day in a new way, even if that does not build on the previous day or seem to accomplish anything. I can start over fresh anytime I need to, there is no failure here. I can bring these elements of love, goodness and joy to any task – housework, my 9-5 job, my volunteer work, my parenting, my friendships, driving in traffic. Really my "purpose" should be to reflect His light and His purpose for others. That doesn’t mean great memorable acts, but small daily actions that demonstrate His love, His goodness and His joy. If all I can accomplish in a day is a smile to a stranger and creating an edible meal for my son, then I have achieved my purpose and brought some love, goodness and joy into the world that day. This also means that if I show love, goodness and joy to myself, I will be better able to create and grow in Him every day. THAT is Good News!!
Now, there’s a question! But I don’t like the thought that I’m the actor in this. Surely it is God making me in His image, not me trying to make myself like God. I do pray, daily, that my life may glorify God, and I pray that His love may fill me and flow through my words and actions to the people I meet. I pray for His wisdom to meet the day with joy in the Lord which is our strength. I pray for the grace to see and seize the opportunities He gives. But how He does it is up to the Holy Spirit. My part is to be open to His will. I see myself as God’s forgiven child, by His grace created for fellowsip with Him and the whole family of faith, reaching out, as He enables, to share His love with others.
My life, for the longest time, consisted of pleasing everyone and worrying what others thought of me. I spent countless times agonizing over why no one seemed to want to be friends with me or why it seemed no one cared what I had to say. Last March Jesus crashed into me and said “enough is enough Wendy.” Since then He has been pouring His love and peace over me. Now I feel whole, complete, loved, favored, enough! I think to myself “wow, God thought one day that there needed to be a “me” in this world.” Jesus loves me so much! How amazing is that? That is reason enough to smile and have joy through all circumstances! Thank you Jesus!
We so often believe the word "image" means what we see on the outside. Our culture is obsessed with outward images. But God made us like Him, in His image, true and deep on the inside. My self-image is one of the goodness and love He created in me. I want to reflect that goodness and love, to shine that light inside, pointing others towards Jesus. The more I study His word and try to live like Jesus, the more I embody the true image of God.
Our pastor said we created for God and by God and for his glory
thinking with the mind set that I was made from Gods love to be more like Him (loving to all and to find love in all things) makes me aware that each day I have an opportunity to show love in a million little ways yet some days that is not the easiest thing to do…
Putting these things into the perspective that being in Gods image is an in word image not the outward image that we all seem to focus on the most..
It’s not all the actions taken or words spoken but what we are thinking and feeling deep within our selves. Once we can put our focus on deepest most inner thoughts and make them more God like, the actions taken and words spoken will come out more as God had intended.
I see myself imaging God by loving others and loving well, being more compassionate, not hiding my heart!
This reminds me that not only was I created out of the abundance of Gods love and joy, but so was every other living thing on this earth. Every human is of supreme worth and value no matter what they look like, where they live, or what they believe.
It makes me feel loved and cared for abundantly. More than I’ve ever felt really. I think God is like a parent, cheering me on to get up when I fall-carrying me when I’m too tired to walk-and proud of me for turning to him. He’s always there.
I have known God my whole life. Saved at 9. Raised in church. Christian college. Married a boy raised in church. However, my life was full of so many setups that convinced me I wasn’t worth fighting for or protecting, that no one would ever truly invest in me, that I was alone and everyone would fail me, that I had to take care of myself, that I didn’t need anyone, and that I was of no value to anyone. In my pain and brokenness I became a solider. Fighter and protector of me. I knew God was with me. I knew He loved me. But I lost my identity as a Daughter; that I was imaged after Him. I built up so many walls to protect myself that I pushed God out of my space. I boxed myself in from the very thing I needed. I’ve been on a very long almost ten year journey laying down my weapons, mindsets, and coping mechanisms; surrendering my own ability to fight for myself and define who I am. I’ve been reintroduced to Daughter-hood within the last two years. Day by day I’m surrendering my own strength, pain, and ideals; laying them down in exchange for His. It’s like I’m going back to basics to learn the truth. My prayer is for God’s word, His truth, His view of me to take root in those void places in my heart. I want to love God’s word passionately and I want my heart to beat in unison with it. The closer I get to the truth of my identity in Him the more at peace I become.