So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27
“God’s intent from the beginning is thus for a cooperative world of shalom, generosity, and blessing, evident most fundamentally in His own mode of exercising power at creation. In the New Testament, Jesus even grounds love for enemies in the imago Dei, suggesting that this sort of radical generosity toward others reflects the Creator’s own “perfect” love toward all people shown in His causing sun and rain to benefit both the righteous and the wicked (Matt. 5:43-48; cf. Luke 6:27-35).
In the end, nothing less than God’s own exercise of creative activity ought to function as the ethical paradigm or model for our development of culture, with attendant care of the earth and just and loving interhuman action. By our wise exercise of cultural power we truly function as imago Dei, mediating the Creator’s presence in the full range of earthly activities, thus fulfilling the initial narrative sequence of the biblical story.”
J. Richard Middleton in A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014) 52.
Yesterday I spent the morning discussing generosity in the image of God with Tim Dittloff of Stewardship Innovations. After lunch before my late afternoon flight home, he took me and some of his friends sailing on Lake Michigan on his boat, the “Imago Dei” (Latin for “image of God”), where I shot the above photo of Milwaukee.
After this amazing experience, I decided to read on this theme further this morning. Our lives must be defined by God’s ethical paradigm which reflects shalom, generosity, and blessing because that’s His image. Do these traits characterize the full range of our living? Do they embody our loving of others from friend to enemy? Do they shape how we interact with our culture and creation?
Father in heaven, thank you for making us in your image, male and female. Help us live as men and women of God who bring Your shalom to our communities. Help us serve as conduits of your generosity even to the most undeserving. Teach us to share Your blessings freely so that people may see You through us. Make it so by Your Holy Spirit I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.