Made in His Image

When my oldest daughter was born, many people immediately said she looked almost identical to her father, my husband. We quickly matched up baby pictures, and they were right.

She’s his image and name bearer, yet she’s unique. She has both my nervous personality and my slight build. She has my small ears, my wide feet.

Or, as she once put it, “I look just like Daddy, but I have your bottom.” Well, dear child, I couldn’t have said it better myself. I’m glad we got that conversation out of the way now, instead of later, when you’re an angsty, hormonal teenager.

My youngest daughter, on the other hand, looks almost identical to me. She’s my image and (middle) name bearer, yet she’s also unique. She has her father’s large ears, narrow feet, pointy chin, and athletic ability. Somehow, though, she’s extremely extroverted, a morning person, and fearless and wild—traits she obtained from neither parent.

My children’s resemblance to us reminds me that we are God’s image and name bearers as well, but we are each unique in our spiritual gifts, physical characteristics, and personalities. We are all called to glorify our Creator, but the way we carry out this great and honorable task will clearly be different from person to person.

A few years ago, my mother-in-law reminded me that our children are both a combination of their inherited genes and their unique selves. I didn’t understand what she meant until I experienced my girls’ personalities more fully as toddlers and preschoolers. One child loves to tell me what she’s doing at school, and the other says “Nothing,” when I ask what she’s learning about each week.

God is a God of diversity. He makes tall people, short people, quiet people, loud people, pale people, dark people, intelligent people, hilarious people. He’s bigger than all our differences—so big that he unites people from across the globe when it seems we have nothing in common but him.

He is the author of the universe, and the Bible tells us we are his image bearers:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26 ESV)

This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. “Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created.” (Genesis 5:1–2 ESV)

A few years after my husband and I were married, we decided we were ready to have children—not because we needed them for our own edification, but because they were a representation and continuation of our love. I believe God created each of us in the same vein.

As God’s children, we are a tangible, visible outpouring of his love and goodness. He did not need our existence to be glorified. Yet he created us as a representation and continuation of himself. We are his image bearers, made to glorify him through the free will he has granted us—in word, in thought, and in action.

We can be perfected and reconciled to God only through our Savior, Jesus Christ, but we are made to resemble our maker from the start. He is the source of our life. He is our hope, our sustenance, our Redeemer. He is our joy, our peace, our very breath. He is our everything.

We may make poor choices, but we are his, nonetheless. Our perfect Father will always be home base. He embraces us with open arms as a loving Father, because he made us a representation of his perfect self.

Lauren Flake writes about her journey as a wife, mom to two little girls and Alzheimer’s daughter in her native Austin, Texas, at For the Love of Dixie. Her first book, Where Did My Sweet Grandma Go? was published in 2016. She thrives on green tea, Tex-Mex, and all things turquoise.

Photograph © Timo Stern, used with permission