in His image

most monday nights i meet with an amazing group of teenage girls. this is what we're going to discuss this week...

What is your favorite love story? think about it for just a few minutes. what's the best part? how much does he love her? does he rescue her? steal her away from someone who doesn't deserve her? women can just think about these for a minute and smile, and swoon and maybe even want to cry...

God has written us the greatest love story of all.
let's start at the very beginning. a very good place to start... Genesis 1:27 tells us that we, men & women, were created in His image. Why was woman created, anyway? Eve was the last thing that God made. Was she an after-thought..? After all, God & Adam seemed to be having a pretty good thing going there. Things seemed perfect. But God is all knowing, and Genesis 2:18 says that "it was not good for man to be alone." God knew, that men NEEDED women. Wow...
what is the most beautiful place, most beautiful thing you've ever seen? the beach, the mountains, a butterfly... God made all of that, and yet something was missing. a woman.
women are relational to their very core. how do women most often define themselves, introduce themselves? i am thier daughter, her sister, thier friend, her best friend... and much more.

so, if we are made in His image and we are relational, then God is too. God is not a man. I have grown up believing that God was male. Not because anyone told me that, not to anyone's fault at all, but God has been presented to me in a way that focused on His strength and power and might. it made me think at the very least i have felt that God is at least MORE man than He is woman. but He is not. man nor woman. just as God is strong like a man, i firmly believe, that God loves like women love. That is the gift of "His image" that He gave to us. Yes, Jesus loves me, for the bible tells me so: in psalm 24:5, luke 12:21, 1john 1:9,romans 5:11 and so many more. these clearly show us that our most important relationship of all is with Him.
the entire bible is a beautiful story of God's unconditional love for us. He made a way for us to have a relationship with Him, even though we don't deserve it, through the death burial and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. Women, think about how badly you wanted a boyfriend, wanted a husband, longed for children (or still do...) The whole bible exists to tell you that God wants a loyal & loving relationship with you more than you want one from any man. Wrap your mind around that.
God loves you more than your daddy.
God loves you more than your momma.
God loves you more than your best friend.
God will always love you and want a relationship with you even more than your own husband and children.
When I take the time to really think about that, it is almost unbelievable.

The bible is clear that God wants us to want Him, more than we want anything else. But we don't... We continue to do our own thing and wonder, "why....?" Mark 12:29-30 or Matthew 22:36-38 tell us the greatest commandment in all of the bible is to love Him. and in Jeremiah 31:3, even though we don't deserve it, He promises that He will love us with an everlasting love.

What does every woman you know want more than anything else? True Love. Its why we read love stories and watch love stories. Why we cry when they finally get together in the end. why, because we want that kind of love.

And He stands right here, every day, to give it us.