In His Image
Psalm 17
Then God said, ” Let us make man
in our image, in our likeness.”
Genesis 1:26
We speak sometimes of a God-shaped vacuum within us. We say that God made us for himself, and that we are incomplete without his presence in our lives. Many Christians have given thanks for that inner emptiness because without it they would never have turned to God. We rejoice in God’s design that made his creatures incomplete so they would need him.
However, the reality is not that God made us different from Himself, but that he made us like Himself. He made us in his own image and likeness, the very likeness of the Son. He made us as persons just as the Son is a person, and as the Son is not complete in himself, neither are we. Persons, divine or human, cannot live without relationship. The divine persons live in Trinitarian relationship, and human persons are also incomplete with relationship. We must be connected to God- the source of our lives- and we must be connected with other people who he brings to us.
This is why the Bible places such an emphasis on holy love. We are made for love, not a love that uses persons for its own satisfaction, but a holy love that finds its fulfilment in giving itself to and for another.
This is an excerpt from the book This Day with the Master by Dennis Kinlaw If you would like to buy this book please click here.