In His Image for His Glory

Genesis 1:27 tells us that God created mankind – male and female human beings – in His image. Scripture doesn’t tell us that any other earthly creature was created in God’s image, so we can correctly deduce that mankind’s place in creation and on the earth is particular. Mankind is set apart from the rest of the creation by bearing the image of God. Genesis 3 gives us the account of mankind being tempted and falling into sin, and God cursing mankind for their sin. The curse was on all of mankind and sin and death would be the lot of all who would be born. In His mercy, God also promised to send a son of the woman, who would break the curse and redeem mankind and the creation.

When they were created, Adam and Eve imaged God perfectly because they were spiritually alive, without sin, and in perfect unbroken fellowship with God. When they sinned they died spiritually, the death that God promised if Adam disobeyed and ate the forbidden fruit (Gen 2:16-17). Because of their sin they no longer imaged God perfectly. The image of God they were created in was marred, it was corrupted.

Mankind was created body, soul, and spirit. Apart from Christ and the new birth of the Spirit humans are alive in body and soul but dead spiritually. The soul is the natural personality, the intellect, the emotions, and the will. In the intellect and emotions and will humans image God, but spiritually dead the ways in which God is imaged are limited. Not in kind but in scope. Humans image God in being able to reason, to think abstractly and concretely, in being able to experience emotion, and in language, the ability to communicate thought and emotion. Humans image God by creating from what we think and feel.

All humans image God. In Christ, those who are born of the Spirit image God in ways that those who are dead in sin cannot. Not in kind but in scope. We will not necessarily be better at what we do but by the Spirit we know why we do what we do. Apart from Christ humans can do great and wonderful things, but only in Christ can we do anything for the glory of God.

God created mankind in His image for His glory. How am I imaging God? How will I image God today? Am I living for His glory in ways that those around me see His glory? May it be so, Lord.

Two things that have marked the time

“America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time.” Terrence Mann, Field of Dreams

Two things that have marked the time for me have been baseball and books. Last week two markers were set. On Tuesday morning just before I left for work I got the news of Ray Bradbury’s death. I’ve been rereading The Martian Chronicles, spending time in the wonderful and amazing imagination and the rich and beautiful writing of Bradbury. I considered staying home.

I wasn’t born yet when The Martian Chronicles was published. I can’t remember exactly when I read it the first time. It wasn’t my first trip into Bradbury’s mind, that was The Illustrated Man, but I’ve loved His work ever since I first read The Veldt. I read from the public and public school libraries first; then I bought, lost or left behind, and bought again new and used volumes. The copy of The Martian Chronicles I am reading is in a nicely hardbound collection given to me by one of my daughters for Christmas. I couldn’t have imagined today the first time I handed over my library card to secure the loan of Bradbury’s images. Today I can’t imagine a world or the world in my head without them.

On Saturday I went to Seattle with one of my adult sons and a friend and saw my beloved Dodgers play the Mariners. In the spring of ’58 I was five and living in central California. The newly relocated Dodgers were instantly our team. I remember coming home from school to my mom watching a game while she ironed our shirts. I remember listening to Vin Scully on the radio in the house and the car and from the cheap seats at Dodger Stadium. I saw countless games on television, following the joy and agony pennant races and World Series won and lost.

What’s the connection? What do the work of Ray Bradbury and baseball have to do with one another? Maybe nothing outside of my overcrowded head, but consider that the work Bradbury did as a man grew out of his experiences as a boy. The work ball players do as men grows out of experiences they have as boys, watching and playing and loving a game enough to make it a career. Bradbury got a toy typewriter for Christmas when he was twelve and decided to be a writer. Like other boys who dream of throwing a no hitter or hitting a grand slam in the big leagues, Bradbury followed his dream. I’m thankful he did. I’m thankful the men we watched play on Saturday did. It takes courage and gives us courage to trust our own dreams.