12-21-25 The Image of Love
Notes
Transcript
Thank you for the opportunity to share today.
There is one thing we have an abundance here in Bly. Anyone care to take a guess?
Good guesses, and you might be right, but the one thing I think we have a lot of in Bly, and still could use more is
GRANDPARENTS
GRANDPARENTS
Grandparents are really great. I’m not one, but I have fond memories of my own. For example. Sometimes, my grandparents would have me over for the weekend and let me go to the video rental store and rent a “flick,” my grandmother would then promptly fall asleep on the couch with the explicit instructions to wake he up to switch the tapes because at 8 years old I should know how to work a VCR.
But then at the end of the 2nd movie she would wake up and wonder how the 2nd tape got in and why the time on the VCR wasn’t blinking 12:00 anymore but had the correct time.
But I cherished my time with my grandparents, and it wasn’t just the movies. I learned how good rhubarb was thanks to them, I learned the basics of golf. And one time I even learned what sound a decorative wooden spoon makes when it breaks on a rear end.
Anyone else want to share a memory about a grandparent?
One of the neat things about grandparents is their love. With a lot of grandparents you get to see a lot of raw unguarded love. Parents have to raise their kids, which means, we love our kids, but sometimes that love hurts as we teach them right and wrong.
Grandparents, yeah, there are some tough ones out there, but often you see ones that are just fun and love. I think the vast majority of people would agree that a trip to Grandma’s house was almost always a treat.
And when it comes to grandparents, they get a treat too. They get to see a product of their good work. I’ve seen a few pictures of my grandpa when he was much younger and I see facial expressions that I have myself. I look at Tirzah over there and think about my Dad and say, Tirzah, he would have liked you. Because, even though she never met him, she knows his sense of humor all too well.
At the beginning of this year we started looking at the Book of Genesis and in one of those verses it said this,
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
One of the greatest things in the world is when we see ourselves in out children and our grandchildren.
Of course the opposite is also true, sometimes we see that version of ourselves we are not proud of in our kids and grandkids.
Who do you look like? Who Do you Act like?
Who do you look like? Who Do you Act like?
But what I want to talk about today is the image we are made in.
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
This Wednesday and Thursday we get to celebrate the first coming of Jesus. And not just his birth, but his forming.
The neat thing about Jesus is that to do the mission he came to do he had to enter into creation. Not just look human, but be human. So he entered into creation like we all did, via the womb.
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.
28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”
38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
To get a little sciencey on you. Normally, this it how life begins.
life cycle
life cycle
The image of a human man meets the image of a human woman and over a period of 9 months one tiny little cell transforms. And the neat thing is, right at conception everything is decided. 50% from dad and 50% from mom.
Hair color, body type, eyes ears nose. Male or female all happen in that first spark of life when that cell divides for the first time.
But Mary was different. You see the world at her time was much different that the world we live in today, and I’m not talking technologically. Culturally, everything was much different.
Life was not valued then as much as it is now. And if you look at the world today and say pastor, there's not a lot a life value today. Back then it was worse.
Back then in most of the world if you had a baby and you didn’t like the way it looked, or what gender it was, you threw the baby out or sacrificed it to your idol of choice. It was a cruel world and not a lot of babies born survived because life was not cherished.
The Jewish people and then later Christian people were different though. Because God Loves life they followed this belief.
Let’s read this again with the thought in mind that God is with us every moment of our lives.
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
This Psalm was written by David to illustrate that God loves us all so much that he is with us from not just conception to death, but from well before our conception to well after our death.
This is why these words from Romans carry so much meaning to me
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
From that first spark in every single one of our lives, God has been active. His image is at work in our DNA and in our DNA his work is seen and known. Every human being on the planet knows, deep down there is something else that is above them, that loves them and wants to know them.
But a long time ago, mankind turned their back on God’s love and culture reflected that. Where ever in the world you see a disregard for human life, you see a lack of love and an increase in lust.
And I’m not talking just the sexual lust. People today call it love, but if you want to see what the majority of people lust after all you have to do is look in the mirror.
People today say, I have to love myself. And that is a true statement. You do have to love yourself, take care of your self. But if you take care of yourself at the expense of others, then you aren’t loving yourself, you are lusting yourself. And I don’t have to ask for a show of hand, because if we are being honest 8 billion hands would go up to the question, who has ever lusted after themselves? Who has ever put their wants and desires before their fellow man. We all have.
But that is not our design. God designed us for love, because that is who he is.
The value of life and love was present in Judaism and with the spread of the Christian Faith we saw the value of life spread world wide.
Those babies that were discarded were saved and raised by Christians, and still are today. When it comes to the value of life Christian’s lead the charge. Over half the adoptions in America today are by Christians and the vast majority of children overseas in need of adoption are adopted by Christians.
Because we are made in the image of love and we desire to express that love to others, just as God desires to express his love to us.
So Mary conceived via the Holy Spirit. And this event was more than likely different from your standard conception. Normally, the child has 50% of Dad’s DNA and 50% of moms. But since God can’t be less and there was not another human’s DNA to mix with, Jesus got 100% from his mom and 100% from God. Making Jesus 100% Man and 100% God. This is amazing because we have the perfect image of love growing inside of Mary. All the same things happened. That first cell divided, and divided, growing and developing. at 24 days Jesus had a heart beat, then by 9 weeks his face formed, by week 13 he began to hear his mother talking, by week 17 Jesus may have let his mother lovingly know he was there with a small kick. By week 21 Jesus had lungs, and they must have been great lungs, because he used them well in his life to speak love to people. In the last 10 weeks in the womb he grew. Those loving kicks probably really let Mary know he was getting ready for a great impact.
And then he was born, which will will talk about on Wednesday afternoon.
But I want to leave you with this today. We are all made in the image of God. Yes, that image has been tainted over time, but it is still there. Those who are grandparents look at their grand children and see a little bit of themselves in those kids. We see our image in those we made. But we also see his image.
As parents and grandparents there’s nothing we would not do to save our child’s life. Even if our kids traveled the wrong path in life, we would be there when they need us too. Even if, for one reason or another, our kids or grandkids hate us, we are there.
Why, because we love them. The culture of the world teaches that the only important life in the world in the individual, but that does not fulfill, it only lusts. But broken down, when you get one of those kids off the street and talk to them and ask them what they need. When they are honest, they say they need to be loved.
There is a member of my family that disagrees with everything I believe in, but she likes spending time with us because we love her. She get’s what she thinks she wants from the world and keeps coming back empty, but where we are around she likes taking time and visiting us and I know she feels love, because that is what we pour out and we pour that out because that is what God pours out.
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The whole reason Jesus came was to love you. Even the ones who hate him. Because he, our creator, loves us and will do anything for us, even dying in our place.
Think on that this Christmas season as you celebrate with friends and family. Do you know someone who does not know love? And then the simple question is, do you love them enough to tell them about Jesus, who died for them. I hope so.
Until then, let us pray.
And as a final question:
Who should you look like? Who Should you act like?
Who should you look like? Who Should you act like?
