Images of God

So an awful thing happened to me a few weeks ago that I haven’t told many people about. I watched the Bachelor. I say it happened to me because I was minding my own business, sitting on the couch messing around on the lap top while Kristin was watching it, because for some reason she loves the show. And after a few minutes, I started asking questions and then I put the computer down, and then I started commenting, and then the show was over, and I realized that I had just sat and watched the whole thing. The following week we were at her parents house eating dinner, and it happened again, only it wasn’t just me. Kristin’s dad was about to go run on the treadmill, but the show started, and he started asking the same questions I asked. Questions like, “Wait so this one guy gets to date 20 girls at the same time, and they all know about the other 19 girls? Wait, so all 20 of these girls are in love with this one guy? So he makes out with all of them, and then picks the one he likes best? What planet are we on, is this show made by a group of Muslims or Mormons?” And before you knew it he had sat through the whole show just like me. It’s kind of like watching a car accident. You want to look away, and you know that you should look away, because you know that it’s just going to be horrible, but you can’t; you have to see what is going to happen. And so a few weeks ago on a Monday night, some friends came over to hang out, and well the Bachelor was on, because again Kristin enjoys the show, and the rest of us just sat there watching the crash and none of us could look away.

He was down to four girls then, which doesn’t sound like much since he started with 20, but in the real world there are certain terms reserved for a guy who dates four girls all at the same time. Terms that I cannot repeat here; but there are names for guys who date multiple girls at once and who tells all of them that they are special and there is no one like them and the moment they try and talk he just starts making out with them, because he really could care less about what they have to say. He just wants to use them, so he can go on to the other girl, and the other girl, and the other girl. The craziest part of the show is how all of the girls know that he is doing this, and are seemingly ok with being treated that way. I can’t imagine behaving like this in real life. Think about it, can you imagine if when I asked Kristin out for the first time back when we were in high school; if when we were sitting in the park at the McKinley monument where I had told her I needed to meet her because I had something I needed to tell her. What if I had told her, “Kristin we’ve been friends for a long time now, and I think I might be in love with you, well not just you there’s 20 other girls that I’m also in love with, but I’d like to take you to the movies later, and then make out for a while and if it goes good, I might give you a rose afterwards which means we can go on a another date tomorrow. Nope, wait, tomorrow I’ll be going out with one of the other girls. Well let’s just see if you get a rose first.” Seriously? Do you really think Kristin would have said oh ok, yeah you can date me and 20 other girls. Honestly, in real life do you think any girl would be ok with that? Call me old fashioned, but I think everyone wants to feel like they are truly valued, that they are not just some object that another person is using; which is the feeling I get from these sort of shows. These girls are desperate for love, this guy cannot possibly give them what they are desperate for, it’s impossible for him to give them real love because the truth is he is just shopping trying each of them on like pairs of shoes, and that no longer makes them human beings, they’ve become something less.-simply objects.
The great tragedy of this, not just in a show like the bachelor, but in our culture as a whole, is that well we are not objects, we are human beings, and as human beings we are all images of God. This is what separates us from the animals, or from products that you buy and sell. The word of God is clear about this; we alone were made in his very own image.

"So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." Genesis 1:27

You were made in the image of God himself; you are a reflection of your maker. Your body, your cells, veins, toes and fingernails, you were knit together in your mother’s womb by the hands of God. He says before you were even born he knew you, and he is the one who brought you into existence, he is the one who formed you, and he says you were made in His image. And not only is this true of you, but of every person on earth. We all carry a spark of the divine; we are all tiny mirrors of our maker, small images of God. That is what it means to be human, and it is a tragedy when we see ourselves and others as anything less. It is a crime against our Maker when we treat ourselves and other people, as something other, objects instead of images of God. But this is what our culture has done, and it affects all of us, especially in our relationships. All around us human beings are being reduced to objects. By the guys at school, rating girls on scales from one to ten, assigning numbers to specific parts of their anatomy; by girls who just give their bodies away like old shirts that anybody borrow. There are guys who only want to take advantage of girls, and girls who only want to toy with guys. So many people, image bearers of God, are reduced to objects. TV, movies, music, magazines, the internet, are all pumping lies into our heads about love and relationships: marriage is old fashioned, sex is casual, and people are objects. Don’t buy it anymore! We are images of the most high God. Honor, love respect, and cherish each other. Anything less is an insult to our Maker.