Our Bodies Are Divine Replicas
Like most little boys back in the day, I was fascinated with toy cars. I had the usual collection of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, and then a new fad came along of even smaller models, Micro Machines. I loved collecting, playing with and trading these tiny vehicles. In the imagination of a child these small cars had nearly as much charm as the full-sized originals they mimicked.
When I played with these cars, part of the "cool"
factor was how well they represented the real thing. This one looked like a
Lamborghini, that one looked like a Corvette. And that one, that one is a
monster truck!
At times I would get my hands on more sophisticated models,
they might have doors that swung open and a steering wheel that turned with the
wheels in the front, and I would be amazed. Then there were the
remote-controlled cars, what a blast it was to race those things around!
All of these toys and models are just replicas. While the
toy car may resemble the real thing and may have wheels that spin in a similar
fashion, doors that open and a steering wheel that turns, no one would mistake
it for the real deal driving down the road.
When God created people, he took a similar approach. Look at
what the Bible says in Genesis 1: "And God said, Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and
over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
We are created in the image God. God made us like scale
models, replicas of himself.
Just as you can look at a toy car and understand something
about the original, we can look at ourselves and understand something about
God, and we can learn about God and understand something about ourselves.
This does not necessarily mean that we look like God. God
the Father is invisible, but God the Son, Jesus Christ, has a body much like
ours. He looks like us and we look like him. It is safe to say that we are
living icons of Jesus Christ, we carry his image with us every day.
Because we are created in the image of God this means that
our bodies possess inherent and intrinsic worth. Each and every human being has
value. Regardless of who they are, what body shape or color of skin they have,
what they have or have not done, every person is worthy of dignity and respect.
This means you. This means me. This means everybody.
Everybody deserves to be treated with some level of honor
and respect.
Felons, sex offenders, war criminals and even serial killers
are worthy of some level of dignity because they too bear the image of God. In
the Constitution there is enshrined the right that all criminals should be free
from cruel and unusual punishment. The Founding Fathers recognized that all
humans have certain inalienable rights because we are created in God's image.
To disrespect and dishonor the human body, either our own or
others, is to dishonor and disrespect God. And to honor and respect the human
body is to honor and respect God.
I remember reading a story a while back about an American
man who visited North Korea and ended up in prison because he had sat on a
picture of Kim Jong Un that was in a newspaper. In that country they hold to
the idea that disrespecting images of their venerated leader is the same as
disrespecting the man himself, and that disrespect is not tolerated.
In the United States most of us would be offended if someone
decided to deface or destroy something like Mount Rushmore or the Lincoln
Monument. We have deep honor and respect for the men those monuments represent,
and we would not want to see their likeness damaged.
This idea is at the very bedrock of why things like murder,
slavery, human trafficking, prostitution, pornography, exploitation, and abuse
in any form are great moral evils. They are an assault on the dignity of the
human person, which is an assault on the dignity of God himself.
Because people are image-bearers we should never hurt and
abuse others, but we also should never hurt and abuse ourselves. Things like
cutting or mutilating our bodies desecrate the image of God in us. No matter
what our bodies look like, they are still worthy of the highest level of
respect.
We should also do our best to keep our bodies in the best shape
possible. Our bodies are reflections of God, and just as the government wants
to keep President Lincoln's statue clean and well maintained, we should do our
best to make sure our bodies are clean and well maintained.
All of us, no matter our skin color or nation of origin are
ancestors of Adam and Eve and possess the same image of God. Racism is evil
because it denies this image, this sanctity and dignity, to certain people
based solely on their race. We ought to be able to look at any person
regardless of their skin tone or nation of origin and see the beauty and glory
of the image of God in their bodies and treat them with honor based off of that.
Pornography defames the image of God as well. Being made in
the image of God means that the human body is a sacred thing and porn takes
that sacred thing and makes it into an object to be bought and sold, to be
consumed like a side of beef. It makes the human body a commodity. People are
reduced to objects of lust with little value outside of their sexual appeal. If
you are sexually stimulating, then you have worth, otherwise, you do not. It
degrades the sanctity of the human body, making it into little more than a
mechanism, a device to create pleasure in others. While I use the word
"pornography" here, so much of what comes out of Hollywood through TV
and film does the same thing.
It is an awesome thought that we are made in the image of
God. We are Divine replicas. No matter who we are or what we have done, we have
massive inherent worth, because we are made in the likeness of God. We are
worthy of dignity and respect, and we should be extending that same dignity and
respect to those around us.
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