Cracked (LD6F)

 

Sometimes (much of the time, really). We forget why we are here.

The first chapter in the Bible isn’t about the scientific reporting of a creation  event (not even close), it’s about why God created humanity.

He created humanity because he loves. He created humanity in his eikon (this is the septugent’s word for it, which translates into the word image). The Bible says we are eikons. We are the image of God. We are, within the communion with God and his creation, the image of perfect love reflected into the world.

But we often spoil it. We choose selfishness over God’s desire, and we become a broken eikon. McKnight writes that, “To be a cracked eikon means that our love is distorted in [all] four directions: we don’t love God as we can, we don’t love ourselves as we should, we don’t love others as we ought, and we don’t love the good world God gave us as we designed”.

But that is where the restoration comes in. Jesus, the perfect eikon (2 Corinthians 4:4), reconnects us with God, and empowers us to live as his image in the world.

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I often forget why I am here. I chase after so many things, and in the process, I forget my roots. When I do that, my life becomes imbalanced and wonky. Sin creeps in, and I do more destruction than creation. I want to live as someone who remembers why they have life.

Because they are loved. In order to love.

Father, let me never forget that you created me in your image. Let me love as the Shema commands, but let me love even more as you have shown what love is through Jesus.