(pre-publication excerpt from Between the Lines: Christianity for Misfit Christians)
“God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.”
– Genesis 1:27
Michelangelo left an unfinished sculpture of the disciple Matthew, the former tax collector (a Jewish traitor to the Romans). He became a Jesus-follower. The statue shows him looking up toward heaven; his body hasn’t fully emerged from the stone. You can see the ragged places where the sculptor is still chiseling away, still revealing the man from his native rock. You can see the longing in the man’s eyes, seeking his creator, while being revealed by his creator, reveled in by his creator.The sculpture is shaped like a man, like the sculptor himself. He has expression, personality, and depth. He’s wearing clothes. He’s pretty husky; he looks quite the athlete. He’s carrying a tablet in his left arm. And he’s made from rock – the earth. Like Adam, whose very name means “earth.”
We’re made in his image, but we’re unfinished. We’re longing; we’re seeking. We’re being revealed by our Sculptor. We’re being reveled in by One who said, “Let us make man in our image.” And the kickin’ thing is, unlike Michelangelo and the stone guy, he’s alive and still sculpting us in real time, all the time.
Early Christians who spoke Latin referred to “Imago Dei,” the image of God. Our ways are like his, distorted but recognizable. Emerging. Like the saying about kids who resemble their parents, “That apple didn’t fall very far from the tree.” Different, still-forming, yet the same in recognizable ways.
