In His Image

In His Image

So God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

I attend a small church in the South.  A few weeks ago our younger pastor made a comment that really made me think.  That in itself is not unusual, he is a provocative speaker. What stands out was that at first, it amused me. He said, “It’s not like God’s sitting around in an easy chair drinking sweet tea.” Sweet tea, the house wine of the South. It just made me laugh and then it reminded me of another quote. One from Blaise Pascal which says, “God created man in his own image—and man returned the favor.”

For many years now, I have lived in a Southern state but I was born and raised in New York.  It took me quite awhile to remember that if I wanted hot tea, that is what I had to order. When you order tea in the South the question follows, “Sweet or unsweet?” Um-hmm… So to hear our pastor refer to God sitting in the chair with his sweet tea made Pascal’s statement so true. It is highly possible that some Yankee pastor was saying, “God is not sitting by his fire sipping cider.” 

What does God look like in your mind? What does he do? Can you envision him in a chair with sweet tea? Is there a gun rack in his den? Or maybe he wears three piece suits and owns a luxury car? I’m being silly, of course. Most of us don’t literally see God in those very human terms but after my moment of amusement, the pastor’s words made me think, how much do I limit God by seeing him in human terms.

In one of his songs Steven Curtis Chapman says, “God is God and I am not.” Amen! Although I often measure my behavior or responses in terms of what I know, or think I know about God I can’t think or reason as he does. If I were to doubt that I only need to consult his Word. ( Isaiah 55:8) Yet, when I misstep, sin, and know that I am wrong, I picture his disappointment in me as I would be disappointed in my own child. When I feel that I’ve gotten something right I imagine that he is proud of me, again as I feel pride in my children. I think it’s fairly safe to say that I’m wrong on both counts.

The truth is our actions do not change the way God feels about us for the better or worse. God’s love never changes. He never compares himself to the other gods because there aren’t any. He never worries that someone will judge him by his actions because he knows that most people will judge him, whether they have a right to or not. (If you think that doesn’t happen think of the last time you heard or said, “Why did God let that happen?” That question and others like it open the door to judging God’s actions.)  He does not concern himself with how he looks or how we look. God may have created us in his image but we veer away from that a lot.

I still find our pastor’s statement amusing but it is also a checkpoint for me. How often do I try to make God or see God as less than he is? That is exactly what we do when we try to put our thoughts or behaviors on him. We make him less. We minimize him and when I see it that way it seems even worse than Pascal’s quote makes it sound.

God made us in his image. We should look at him and to him as the perfect example but we should never, ever try to make him look like us.