Reflecting His Image

Genesis 1:26-28 

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

As I was reading this verse and trying to discover what it truly means to be created in God's own image something was revealed to me in this scripture more than it ever has before. I'm going to say this and some of you are going to think DUH, but when you really think about it in comparison to us, you will be blown away. If we are made in His image and we have free will to make choices then God has the free will not to choose us. Yet through all we have done since the beginning of time He has chosen to redeem us and give us grace. That is mind blowing to me. I think sometimes knowing that God is perfect and sinless makes me think about how He loves us despite our sin, and sometimes I think that He loves us because He is perfect. Yet in reality He chooses to love us despite our sin even though He is perfect and he could choice to not love us. He could have rejected us or made us complete good works in order to receive salvation. All of those options wouldn't make Him less perfect, yet that's not the God we serve. We serve a God so good and so loving that when it came to letting us spend eternity away from him or finding a way to pay for all of our sins he chose to pay for all our sins. Now I know some of you might be thinking ok really we all know this. We know that God choose to send his son, but that's not why I think that this is important. The whole reason I bring this up is the fact that even though we were made in God's image and He choose to forgive us and love us despite our flaws, and we don't do the same. I know I struggle with this. I know that loving others is extremely hard in general and then to add to it Jesus commands us to love them as he loves us. So when you're showing what you feel is love is it really? Are you loving those around you like Jesus loved us? Are you willing to lay down your lives for those you love because that is the love Jesus shows us. He shows us to truly love is to be willing to fully sacrifice yourself for someone else. I mean think about it. For those of you who have a spouse or children you love them unconditionally and that is great, but even though you love them unconditionally are you loving them like Jesus? That is my challenge for all of us today, I want us all to start trying to love those around us like Jesus loved us. I know how hard it is because I struggle with this too, but I think that If I continue to try I might just start to understand the love our God has for me. The love He chooses to give to me everyday.