Created Like Him to Create

“And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.” – Genesis 1:24-27 (NIV)

God created the heavens and earth, the light out of dark, sky and sea and land, plants and trees, sun and stars, and creatures of all kinds.

Including animals on land, fish in the sea, birds in the sky. (Check out Lindsey’s great post about how all these differences in creatures are part of what makes the world so beautiful.) He also created us to reign over those creatures, which means we care, use, and shepherd with love.

But let’s backtrack a little again to this truth: He created us.

Us.

At the beginning of the month, we hinted at how God created us to trust, to praise, to love.

Genesis 1:27 tells us God created us in His image. To have likeness with Him.

Does that make your jaw drop?

He created us to be like Him, and He is a Creator.

God as Creator

Let’s look at a few verses to get an idea of what that means.

• First, God is love (1 John 4:8,16). God is truth (Proverbs 30:5, Psalm 25:5). Since God is perfect and He is love and truth, every act He does always has both love and truth in it.
• Psalm 95:3-5 reminds us that God created the world, and that act of creation inspires praise and joy from His creation (Psalm 95:1-2,6-7).
• Psalm 19:7-10 shows us even God creation of His rules, decrees, and commands are life-giving and filled with love and joy.
• Psalm 33 (especially Psalm 33:4-5) points out that everything God does is for truth, for what’s right, and for and with unfailing love.

Like Lisa said earlier this week, every action we take is an act of creation, and we can create all things in love with God’s help.

His Hands and Feet, Not His Replacement

We are called to be His ambassadors and His hands and feet to spread love on this earth, but that doesn’t mean we should ever think of ourselves as ultimate creators. When we fall into that way of thinking, we seek power instead of service, we ostracize instead of welcome, we hurt instead of help.

Instead, we are created by His love (1 John 4:19) to spread grace-given His love (Ephesians 2:8-10).
     We fill up on His love, and then pour that love to others.
          We soak up His light and reflect it out into the world.

He created us to create, and this call to create sprouts from love and from gratitude because of love.

How can what you create today share His love?

Extra study until the next post:

1. Reread all of Genesis 1 again. Look at all the creating God did first before He created in us. Be in awe of it. Marvel at it. Praise Him for it through prayer, song, and your own creation today.
2. Look around you about people you know who are living for God. How do their acts — small and large — create love in the world? We can be examples for each other, too.
3. I highly recommend reading [amazon_link id=”1400203759″ target=”_blank” ]Love Does[/amazon_link] by Bob Goff. His book looks at how each of our actions can create love in the world.
4. I also recommend any of Emily P. Freeman’s writings, including her blog and her books, especially [amazon_link id=”0800722442″ target=”_blank” ]A Million of Ways[/amazon_link] for more about creating as a believer.