made in the image of God..

class today was pretty great. you see, i am in this module called "introduction to pastoral theology" and it is absolutely amazing. today we talked about the image of God and focused on community. this idea of man and woman being made in the image of God just blows me away.

the thought that i, in all of my brokenness, still bear the image of the Creator of the universe is so incredible. in Genesis 1, God said "let Us make man (in Hebrew the word for man is the generic term for mankind, so that may help your thinking a bit for this idea of community) in OUR image, after OUR likeness... so God created man in His image... male and female He created them." wow. trinity. God's complete image is that of community. Father, Son, and Spirit, living in perfect unity and submission. and when He created us that was His plan for His people. man and woman were made in His image. on our own, we are not the complete image and that's really beautiful. to me, that says that we are not made to be alone. we are made to live in community. we are called to live in fellowship. man and woman are the image of God and when we come together, living in unity and submission to one another, we bring glory to God because we are living as He created us to.

that's all fine and good and it is something lovely to think about, just like most theology.. but it should change the way we think and the way we live. i want to always remember that on my own, i am not complete. i need God and i need people. and i need to love people better than i do right now. we are all made in the image of God and that is something that demands great respect. i want to love every person i come into contact with and remember that their Creator loves them, too.