A Christian Reflection on the Imago Dei
By Stu
Jesus gave us life and life abundantly.
Because of that, all life will try to preserve itself, from the Amoeba to the child in the womb.
“Apart from me you can do nothing,” Jesus declared.
We have no means of producing life on our own unless it is prescribed by God. The question is do we believe it?
God said that He knitted us together in the womb, that He has numbered every hair on our head, that He knew us before the foundations of the world. Do we believe it? And if we do, do we only consider it intellectually, or does that belief come from the heart? Is it merely something we might see under a microscope and dispute, or is it from a real faith in Jesus Christ that is imparted to us because we know the Author of life?
I was raised in my youth with a very great collection of people—Nobel Prize-winning Physicists and Mathematicians. I knew Richard Feynman, met Stephen Hawking, and sat at the Stanford Convention with all the great men of the century. But like most of them, I was an atheist.
I sat in the home of the Dean of Mathematics of a Florida University and shared my views with him. For forty-five minutes he listened politely. He was a Christian and a great Mathematician. After my rant was over, he simply said to me, “It is good to search Stu, but don’t take too long. You’d better start finding.”
As an atheist, I had no genuine regard for life. “Morals” was only a word. Once I told my friend I would not lie, and when he caught me in one, I simply told him I changed my mind. Life was merely something I flippantly took for granted, and never thought about considering whether, if it were possible, I might have asked that I be aborted before birth. Have you ever heard such a thing? Have you ever thought to yourself, “I will abort myself.” Anyone sane could not even think of such a proposition.
Have you ever thought to yourself, “I will abort myself.” Anyone sane could not even think of such a proposition.
Why then would someone want it to happen to someone else? Again, all life has a tendency to preserve itself. This is how God wired us.
Many have presumed the role of God. Yet, most of us do not think that we are so frail that anyone of us could get cut on the edge of some tuna fish can and perish.
Flawed, blemished, imperfect, we go around sitting atop our own self-built pedestal in order to look down upon others and proclaim ourselves great. Great compared to what? An ant standing next to a hundred foot giant is completely at its mercy. Yet God, in His majesty and power, did make us in His image.
We are the only species for instance that has technology. We have build great machines, sent man to the Moon and beyond, and have built the tallest skyscrapers on earth. Yet, we do not even stand up to a blade of grass. When have we created one of them? So God says we are less than nothing. I hardly even understand the concept of being less than what does not even exist. Here today, gone tomorrow in a breath, yet many think they have power over life when they have no more power over their own.
Since I put twenty years of atheism behind me and turned to the Giver of Life Himself, I can truthfully say that I have lived on both sides of the street and have every right to declare which side is greater. Can you?
To those floundering around a decision to know Jesus, why not simply ask Him if He is real? If He is God, surely He is large enough to reveal Himself to anyone He pleases. He said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.”
Go ahead. Ask Him.
