So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.~ Genesis 1:27

By the sweat of your brow / you will eat your food / until you return to the ground, / since from it you were taken; / for dust you are / and to dust you will return. ~ Genesis 3:19

I remember when I first saw my daughter’s dimples. It was some time after her birth, but I will never forget the surprise and the joy at noticing them indented in each cherubic cheek. I don’t have dimples, but my husband, my sister, and my father do, so I relished seeing this piece of them mirrored on my sweet daughter’s face. 

She also has the most amazing hair. I call it magic hair because strands of almost every color flow naturally in gentle, magazine-worthy waves. She gets her thick, luscious hair from her grandmother.

She has my sister’s Cindy Crawford style mole.

She has my laugh. 

So many ways I rejoice in seeing myself and my family reflected back at me in my child. It’s no wonder that when I hear the creation story and get to the part where “God created human beings; he created them godlike, Reflecting God’s nature” (Genesis 1: 26-28 MSG), it’s not that hard to believe. 

Think about your own children and the ways you see parts of yourself in their looks, temperament, or preferences. How do you feel when you see yourself in your children? I imagine it’s much like God feels when he sees us: proud, joyful, humored, delighted, connected. 

And how do our children feel when they overhear comments like “he’s got his mother’s eyes” or “she’s tough like her grandmother”? I remember my parents’ friends noting how my energy was so much like that of my mom’s or that I had my dad’s love for reading. There was something affirming about statements like that, something connecting, something that stamped me as part of a family. 

And then I think for a minute about the creation story, and when I consider that I am made not only in the image of my earthly mother and father, but that I am also made with God’s nature, something catches in my heart. There is something right and true about that. I am worthy. I am beautiful. I am powerful. I am good. I love. I create. I want justice. I give grace. 

It takes my breath away that I could be anything like God. 

And yet, I believe it. 

At the same time, there are days when I am driving on one of Atlanta’s major highways, and it’s twelve lanes, as far as the eye can see, packed bumper to bumper, thousands of people right there. And I realize I’m just one person. In that sea of people. And that’s just one highway, in a city of five million. And that’s just one city in a country, one country in the world, and one lifetime among billions of lives over the course of history. 

And it hits me how I am dust. Just a tiny collection of dust and molecules among billions of others swirling within a galaxy larger than I can even imagine. A galaxy I didn’t make. I’m so not even close to being like God.

And so we come to a paradox: We are made in the image of God; We are not God. We are on a path of life where everything we do matters a lot; in fact, it matters eternally. Every reaction, every choice has long lasting consequences. But we are also mortal. We shall die. Our memories will be erased and our influence seemingly null. 

When we start to look at our lives- our parenting, our business, our marriages, our relationships, our hopes and dreams – through the lens of this paradox, there is both a gravity that descends and a weight that is lifted. We start to see our lives in their proper place.

Not God, but God-like. Humble and worthy of Honor.

As we step into this Holiday season, it’s tempting to live into one or the other.

We start to get stressed about shopping or being busy when we forget just how small our lives are in the truth of God’s Christmas story and his creation story.

Or we start to get annoyed with all the consumerism, and we forget that each time we celebrate a Christmas party or give a Christmas gift, we can do it in the spirit of honoring the God who made us in his image and loved us so much that he would come to earth to dwell among us.

When we live in this paradox, however, we can find joy no matter the speed or stress or swirl of this life. We can live as if we remember who we are truly created to be. And that is a good way to live!

So this holiday season, let’s not complain about how busy we are or how much we have to do. Let’s not dread the pageants the presents the cards and the candy.

Let’s celebrate instead!

Let’s see if we can see God’s creation in each person we meet, remembering that the message of Christmas is that God – the one who created each one of us in his image- came down to be with us and show us how to live. That he loves us so much– and that means he loves the grumpy cashier and the late fedx driver and the granny who double parked in the crowded mall lot. Each one of these folks, from your colleague who drank too much at the Holiday party to your misbehaving child who is “definitely getting a lump of coal this year”, is god-like. And when we begin to see that part, a weight of honor descends, perhaps where none may have been before, and a weight of stress or pride lifts when it may have been so heavy as to be blinding.

Let’s see if this season we can remember that we are not God. That when we’re late to the Christmas pageant, we don’t have to speed or honk. It will go on without us, and the world will keep spinning. That when we’ve burned the Christmas cookies or spilled eggnog on our neighbor’s brand new couch or forgotten the present for our boss, we’re going to be OK. We’ve got a God whose plan is to redeem it all. And we don’t have to carry the world on our shoulders.

We are, after all, a beautiful paradox of God-like, but definitely not God.