An Ideal Design Not Based on Outward Form
Continued from Blog God’s Design 3
It doesn’t matter how we appear, if we have a plain or a stunning face, how tall or short we are, what clothes we wear, what food we eat, whether we are too slight or overweight or whatever, our colour, race, creed – none of these matters. Our attractiveness is no sign of our worth. 
God carries in her consciousness an ideal design independent of anything we are on the outside and on the inside has nothing to do with ideas or views we may hold.
Here is one of the first indicators of God’s design:
God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 (NJB)
Genesis declares humankind as created in God’s image but does not explain what this means. What does this ideal look like? It is of long standing debate.
God saw all that he had made, and indeed it was very good. Genesis 1:31 (NJB)
Rooted in Genesis is one of the foundational truths of Christian faith – the belief that human life is good, it is valuable and has dignity. Described in the process of earth’s creation is also the unique place and role of responsibility assigned to human stewardship of the planet.
God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:25 (NJB)
Imagine we are the reflection in God’s mirror that radiates back. God looks at the image and smiles.
Her gaze holds a parent’s joy when looking at her child. The wonder of this sparkling and gleaming creation delights. Joy bubbles over not because of anything the child does but because the child exists–it is good.
Ideal Creative Expressions
It is good–dare we believe in our value and dignity when life’s weight bears down and we flounder. Inferiority tempts when battling to hold footing while slipping into a murky pit of discouragement. Can we remember we are God’s design? When slimmed by the bottom muck of our own negative self-perceptions or those assigned to us by others–God sees our sullied form as wholly different: it is good.
The dirt may disguise what is below the surface but humankind always gives rise to creative expressions–we are like our Creator, compelled in big and small ways to make things.
What did you do today?
Did you: prepare food; harness words to express thoughts and ideas in an email or by phone or text; tidy and clean to make a wholesome and safe environment for yourself and/or others; complete a job or begin another; write a blog post or compose a few more bars of a symphony; learn fresh choreography in line dancing; assemble primary sources for a course assignment; fit together more pieces of the family-room floor parquet and then install a sink facet; embroider blocks in a quilt; add last strokes to a masterpiece or pen a stick drawing, or million other myriad human expressions of creation?
We create every day and it is a marvel. Can we delight in our days in the same way that God delights in us? 
Within the fruits of our labours, magnificent or mundane, is a uniqueness of expression that warrants wonder –the reflected image of our ideal life force–and its design is very good.
To be continued (refer next post).
What word describes for you God’s ideal design for humankind?