Discovering Your Inherent Value
Do you know your inherent value? Do you?
Do you know where your inherent value comes from? In Genesis 1, we see the creation story. God made everything in an order that made sense and we’re told that He did it day by day over six days.
God’s Deliberate Separation
God very clearly makes distinct separations between each bit of creating. Up until day 6, those separations are by days.
Then God changed it up a little bit. On the sixth day, God made every land creature. But there is a distinct separation right after that. He says that it was good.
In verses 20 through 22, he fills the seas with all the fish and large sea creatures. But that’s all jumbled up with making birds to fill the skies. Then we have the separator of a new day. There’s no distinction making one or the other stand out.
So in the middle of the sixth day when God calls all the land animals good, we see verses 26 and 27. Not only had God ended one action (the creating of land animals) with declaring it good, which seems to be a unique separator in itself.
Verse 26 though starts with “Then.” That very clearly separates what he had just done from what He is about to do. His next act stands out as special simply because it is the only part of creation throughout these verses that stands alone.
The Emphasis on Being Made in His Image
Genesis 1:26 and 27 say, “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
It mentions the word image three times in just two verses. And it’s obviously not just because there was no thesaurus around. Each time the word is used, the same message is repeated deliberately. That is done throughout scripture to show emphasis. So the fact that God made us in His image must be pretty important.
A Reflection of Family Resemblance
From the moment the doctor held up a slimy naked little human, it was clear that my daughter resembled me very strongly. There was no question that she was mine.
Being made in my image means that there are things about her that direct people’s attention to me. People see me when they look at her. But I think more important than that is that her being made in my image also means that we’re family. We belong together!
Recognizing Your Inherent Value
I asked if you knew your inherent value. I asked if you know where it comes from. The very creator of time and all that is made you in His image.
There are things about you that should bring our attention to Him. And even better, He made you to belong with and to Him.
