In the beginning...



If you were to grow a plant from seed, there would probably be a picture on the front of the seed packet showing you what to expect. The picture would be of an ideal specimen- your plant probably won't be quite like the picture, but if the picture shows you carrots you do not expect the seed to grow into a sunflower. If we are cultivating something, it helps to know what the end product is supposed to look like.


Does this work when cultivating character? Can we see a picture of what the finished person should be like? 
Philosophers from Aristotle to Nietzsche have argued about what this picture might look like. They asked questions such as -Who decides what is a virtue and what is a vice? Can a truly good person have some of these aspects of character but not all of them? Maybe the characteristics which we value are a product of culture? And if so, does that mean that each society is able to make up their own picture?

The Bible gives us an answer which is at the same time simple and profound.

Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness..."

 So God created humankind in his image
in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.
Genesis 1: 26, 27

In the beginning, when God created humans, He made them in his image. No-one knows what God looks like, so its clear that this doesn't mean we are like him in appearance- no, this is a mandate for our character. 

This week we will be reading from the first chapters of Genesis to try and understand more about what it means to be created in the image of God.

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