“He made man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” Genesis 1:26-28, KJV
The word “image” means to be a “duplicate” and a “carbon copy.” Before the invention of photocopiers, when a need arose for more than one copy of a signed or typed document, people would place it over a piece of carbon paper then place that over another piece of paper. The pressure of the pen or typewriter to the top sheet – the document needing copied – would cause pigment from the carbon paper to reproduce a similar mark on the other sheet of paper. When separated, all that was on the first document was now also on the copy – every word, every signature, every mark visible. And this is how we were created – shaped and formed by the pressure of the Father’s hands, brought to life and set upon the earth as “image-bearers” to be “carbon copies” of Him.
Have you ever heard someone say, “You look just like your Dad!” or “You’re the spitting image of your Mom?” I hear it all the time. Within a few minutes of meeting someone who also knows my parents, I will hear often more than once how much my features and mannerisms remind them of my mother. I carry her markings – the shape of my nose, my smile – and I have adopted her characteristics – gestures, vocal tones, facial expressions. It’s obvious who I belong to and what gene pool I swim in. It is also obvious that we have spent a great deal of time together.
Similar physical features were mine from birth, but the characteristics of my mother’s personality and communication style that I have acquired through the years have been “pressed” into me during time spent with her. With each passing day, I see more and more of her in me. I find myself saying, “I sound just like my mother,” and have had to acknowledge the fact that I have in many ways become her “carbon copy.” Instead of saying, “You really think I look like her?” I now admit truthfully, “You are so right!”
From the moment we were formed within the womb, we were made to be “image-bearers” of our Father God. His hands gently pressed into the clay – shaping us, marking us – instilling within us features that none of His other creations possess. We were brought to life by His breath. All of us reflect Him. But some similarities can only be shaped by time spent together – the deeper the “impression” the stronger the “reflection.”
Acts 4:13: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”
There was something about Peter and John that brought the people to this conclusion – something in their actions, their responses, their conversations – that proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that time had been spent with Jesus. And here it what I have discovered: the more time spent with Him, the more we know Him. And the more we know Him, the more we adopt His traits as our own, the more His image is pressed into us – and the more the world sees Jesus in us.