A Prayer About God’s Image

When I think about being created

GOD,

In Genesis I read about your special creation of human beings, beginning with the first two people, a male and a female, Adam and Eve. Those two were quite different from the rest of Creation because you created them in your image. I don’t know all that your “image” entails, but I do know that all of us human creatures are somehow like you. I need to remember that profound truth when wondering if I have any value to you. Thank you, Lord, for endowing me with worth and giving me responsibility for caring for planet Earth. But I also need to remember that all people are your image bearers—talkative coworkers, annoying neighbors, irritating relatives, opposition politicians, aggressive nonbelievers, and even hardened criminals and terrorists. I can easily write off certain people as “worthless,” or at least not worth the effort. Please help me see people of every age, race, nationality, and life station as you see them—valuable and special. And show me how to share your love with them.

God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:26-27