The Story of God in relation to creation is basically a really simple story of a great relationship gone bad, and the way back. Clearly there are lots of twists and turns, nuances, and deep meaning, but at its root it’s a story of creative love that was broken and is being restored.
You see, God’s creative passion overflowed in creative acts of expression that reflected His deep nature: the earth, the heavens, and His crowning act – women and men. As with any creator, part of God’s very nature was indelibly imprinted on His creation. We call that the image of God. Invariably when someone creates, they put some of themselves in their creation. So it was with God. And part of that imprint was freedom – to choose, to say yes or no, to obey or not.
Using our own will freely, we chose to act selfishly; to do it our way. To say to God, “Thanks, but no thanks! We’ll decide what is best. Not your will, but ours.” Of course the result is simple – a separation, a breach, distance was created in that intimate and loving relationship between us. The consequence of that gap was a warping of the image that was imprinted on us. Soon that image became so marred, so broken, so deformed that it is hardly recognizable.
Thank God, though, it remains. And the same passionate creativity that motivated God to create in the first place compelled Him to make a way back; to close the gap, eliminate the chasm between us, to restore proximity. As the gap is closed, the image is once again restored. We begin to reflect again the image God left in us when He first created.
You can only imagine the opportunities that are all around you to close the gap a little more. By the work of Christ, the Way back has been laid out. Every moment, every circumstance, every encounter becomes another moment in which you may exercise faith in that Way as leading to closer proximity with God and hence a restoring of the image God first imagined for us when He acted in passionate love to create us!
It’s simple, really!