ON THE VANGUARD

THE GOOD MAN
“So God created humankind in his own image; in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.”
Genesis 1:27

I returned from my vacation with the kids on Sunday and worked hard to return to life as I knew it before leaving. I was happy to see the house clean as I had left it before going, but I made two discoveries. First, as I went to turn on the hall light, it would not come on. I had just replaced the light bulb about two weeks before leaving, yet still in my absence it had burnt out. The second discovery took me a little longer to notice. Late in the evening, when my daughter asked what time she should return from playing with her friends, I looked at the clock and spoke a random time. I looked again, though, not thinking it as late as the clock said, and noticed that the clock had stopped. During our trip the battery in the clock also had died. Both my hall light and clock were missing their connection. They weren’t missing in and of themselves, but something was missing that was preventing them from performing their action. This was not, in my eyes, good.
If we were to look back over the first few days of creation we would notice that at the close of the first five days God looked over His work and declared it good. We see this in Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21 and 25. Up until this time all that God had created was good. But on day six when God added man as part of His creation, He looked over what He had made and declared it very good (1:31). What was it that allowed this piece of creation to move away from the good category to that of the very good? While the world and animals and plants were all made within the spoken command of God, man was made within His image. It is this single difference that separated man from anything else, and it is this difference which defines man’s relationship with his Creator. You see, from the Torah’s perspective, human life is a miracle from God. The creation of humans was a deliberate act, which in and of itself gives human life dignity and purpose.
In Hebrew, ADAM means man. Taking only the dirt, God created something more. He breathed life into dirt, or in Hebrew, He did what is called NESHAMAH, He gave man a soul. Adam only became a man when God breathed into his nostrils the neshamah of life, the soul of existence. While we are physically a gathering of chromosomes, we are more importantly vessels containing a spark of God’s breath. Perhaps likening it to a light bulb or battery makes more sense. The hall light or clock needing the bulb or battery will not come alive without the new bulb or energized battery. So God’s breath is to us. His breath in our soul allows us to come to life.
So if we are in the image of God, then how are we in His image? Like Him, we are a thinking, reasoning animal, with free will and self-determination. Yet, from the beginning man has had a hole that only God can fill. This hole desires God, but in many areas is filled with others items or idols. The problem, however, is that these other things cannot fill it correctly because they do not represent God correctly. Have you ever heard the phrase of putting a square peg in a round whole? This void and desire are much the same. The hole is the round hole, but the idol is the square peg. Sure, it can be jammed in there, manipulated, or cut smaller so as to fit, but the true fit only comes with a round peg in a round hole.
We are made in His image. We are made in the reflection of God and for His joy. Why then do we walk around feeling as though we hold no value? Our creator has declared us very good. But then why also do we so casually run from our Creator and seek other things that will not bring us the fulfillment in life that only our Creator can? Isn’t it time we start seeing ourselves as His reflection and allow Him to be the peg that fills our hole?