Image Bearers
As I sat at the table that evening with my five-year-old son, we played with every parent’s favorite toy…Play-Doh. Just like so many times before, he used all of his different tools to make various creations. First, it was a pizza. Next, it was a flower. Then, it was something that I could not recognize. He explained to me that it was a dinosaur. I couldn’t quite see it myself, but I played along anyway. I built him up with praise and admiration. Then we played a little longer before I suggested that we clean-up our mess.
As we swept up and crumbled what seemed like thousands of tiny pieces of broken Play-Doh, my son gave me his Play-Doh dinosaur as a gift. He wanted me to keep it forever. In that moment, the cheap red and green clay mound of this ancient creature became a revelation to me.
I began to think about how God sees us versus how we see ourselves.
At times, we feel unworthy, undeserving, and inadequate. We have insecurities, doubts and worries about ourselves. We let someone down. We lose our temper. We fall short. We forget. We layer these feelings and hold on to them. The Play-Doh dinosaur reminded me that even when we cannot see our own worth, God sees us as beautiful creations made in His image.
“Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…”
Genesis 1:26 NIV
We are His prized possession. Our feelings are not who we are. There is not a single thing that we can do that will cause Him to see us any different.
“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous-how well I know it.”
Psalms 139:14 NLT
I love how the New Living Translation uses the word “complex” in this verse. We are indeed complex, sometimes convoluted, nuanced creatures and God knows it! He knows the mess we can be and loves us completely. When we feel like a mess, He still sees us as wonderfully made.
It is likely my son will never realize how his messy, Play-Doh dinosaur spoke to me and I pray that it speaks to you. In the moments where we fall short, let’s cling to the good, good Father that loves us just as we are and sees us as perfect…even while He is still molding and shaping us into who we are meant to be!