God’s first image bearers

So God created man in his own image;
he created him in the image of God;
he created them male and female.  Genesis 1:27

The perk of having a father who writes children’s books is that as you grow older, you have access to your father’s most treasured words in illustrated, bound form. For me, these words are recorded in a book he wrote way back in 1992 called Just in Case You Ever Wonder. The book was written to my two sisters and me as a promise that our dad would always be around and that he would always love us. He wrote promises like:

I’ll always love you.
I’ll always hug you.
I’ll always be on your side.
And I want you to know that…just in case you ever wonder.

Even though I was only six years old when this book came out, I knew it was special to have a book written for the purpose of showing me how much my dad loved me, just in case I ever wondered.

The older I get, the more I see this message in Scripture, from the very beginning.

It’s easy to read the story of Adam and Eve and The Fall and feel guilt and shame. We know we are equally guilty of sin and deserving of the consequences Adam and Eve received. But each time I read their story, I am less struck by the humans’ behavior and more focused on God’s. I realized I have taken for granted how incredibly close God is to His creation in these verses.

He’s so close that He “breathed the breath of life into [Adam’s] nostrils” (Genesis 2:7). He’s so involved with His creation that when He saw the man was lonely, He reached down His hand, took one of Adam’s ribs, closed the flesh, and “made the rib He had taken from the man into a woman” (Genesis 2:22).

Even after the sin, shame, and hiding, God remained near. He looked for His children in the garden, talked to them, asked them questions. And here is something interesting: though Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden, God did not leave Adam and Eve. There is discipline from God, yes, but there is not distance from God.

Just in case you ever wonder if God loves you, look at Adam. Look at Eve.

Just in case you ever wonder if you’re alone, remember He’s been with us since the very beginning.

Just in case you ever wonder if you were a mistake, remember how intentionally God created us, breathed into us, formed us.

Just in case you ever wonder if your sin is too great this time, remember that God didn’t go anywhere during the original sin. He did the opposite. He drew near to Adam and Eve. He sought them out. We see him do the same throughout Scripture, with numerous men and women until, eventually, He comes so near that He is in flesh, born among us.

From the first book to the last, the Bible makes it perfectly clear where God is and how He feels about His creation. There are no question marks. We don’t have to wonder.