Made in God's Nature

God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature, so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth." 
God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God's nature. 
He created them male and female. – Genesis 1:26-27 (The Message)

What does it mean to be made in the image of God? What is God’s nature like? What then should our nature be like? What all are we responsible for?

This is a story I have heard before.
Word spread across the countryside about the wise Holy Man who lived in a small house atop the mountain. A man from the village decided to make the long and difficult journey to visit him. When he arrived at the house, he saw an old servant inside who greeted him at the door. "I would like to see the wise Holy Man," he said to the servant. The servant smiled and led him inside. As they walked through the house, the man from the village looked eagerly around the house, anticipating his encounter with the Holy Man. Before he knew it, he had been led to the back door and escorted outside. He stopped and turned to the servant, "But I want to see the Holy Man!"
"You already have," said the old man. "Everyone you may meet in life, even if they appear plain and insignificant... see each of them as a wise Holy Man. If you do this, then whatever problem you brought here today will be solved."

While I don’t know that all our problems will be solved if we saw each other as wise holy people, it might help. God is wise and holy, and God makes us in that image and in that nature. Even if we aren’t quite wise and holy as is, somewhere such things exist within us. The Talmud says, “From beginning to end God’s law teaches kindness.” Maybe it is in kindness we can begin to see each other as wise holy people, to see ourselves as wise holy people. And maybe in seeing that God will come and make sure that what we see is so.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Keeping the Sabbath Holy

"Remember to keep the Sabbath holy. Work and get everything done during six days each week, but the seventh day is a day of rest to honor the Lord your God. On that day no one may do any work: not you, your son or daughter, your male or female slaves, your animals, or the foreigners living in your cities. The reason is that in six days the Lord made everything—the sky, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. On the seventh day he rested. So the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” – Exodus 20:8-11 (NCV)

What does it mean to keep the Sabbath holy? Do you keep the Sabbath holy? Is there a day you stop working? Why do you think God wanted us to rest one day a week? How does resting honor God?

We exist in stressful times. Many people judge their success based off how busy they are, how many meetings they attend, how many boards they are on, and so on. In all of our busyness we do not have time to rest, and the idea of resting seems to be wrong to us. When we rest we wonder what we should be doing and we think about what we have to be doing, “If I don’t get this stuff done it will never get done.” And because there never seems to be an end to it we stop resting in order to work.
I once spoke with a young man after his father died, and died too young to die in our day and time. I asked him how he was holding up, and he told me he was fine. “My dad worked all the time. Always told us kids that it was to give us the life he never had. I guess we had that life, but I am not sure I ever had a father.”

If God could take a day off to rest and knew that the universe was not going to fall apart without him for a day, I think we can be assured that we are not so important that things will fall apart if we take a day off. In fact if we don’t take a day off things do fall apart. Our lives, our relationships, our inner peace, our joy, everything that makes us real (because what we do is not who we are) falls apart when we don’t keep the Sabbath holy. Keeping it holy means that we get some rest, that we honor God by enjoying the creation of which we are a part, that we drink from the wellspring of life that is communion with our Savior, that we spend time with friends and family, that we stop worrying about work and doing things just long enough to remember that Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.” Since we are made in the image of a Creator who rests, I suppose it is in our DNA to rest. Resting is part of who we are, resting honors the One who made us because it acknowledges who we are, and it bring us closer to our Maker. Starting now let us grow closer to God and his creation by keeping the Sabbath holy. It will make life more worth living!

With hope and joy,
Garrett