We're human beings, not human doings.
Yet we often tie our identity very tightly to what we do and to doing what we want.
One of the teachings I draw out of the Bible that I think would bless and benefit everyone is the words on humans being created in the image of God.
We're not the same as the animals. Duh. Of course we're different, no matter how much the same we are chemically, genetically, biologically, etc.
What is it to be human? Maybe it's to be the zenith, a peak in the ever-moving universe. To have inherent value. To have responsibility.
Here's a list from Nicolas Beale and John Polkinghorne:
Being made in God's image clearly does not mean we are like God in every respect, but that in very important respects we are an ikon of God . . .
We are persons, capable of true love--and hence endowed with free will and living in a universe with "free processes"--reasonably but not totally predictable.
We are capable of moral choices.
We are intrinsically part of a loving community. The fact that the Trinity was present at creation adds an extra dimension to "let us make . . . male and female created He them.
We are intrinsically valuable in God's eyes.
We are creative--indeed called to be co-creators.
We are capable, by God's grace and redemption, of perfect union with God--Jesus is "the (perfect) image of the invisible God." ...
Science's power to fathom the deep structure of the universe, which I believe to be a pale reflection of our being in the Creator's image.
The granting of "dominion," understood in the sense of a caring shepherd-king rather than an exploitative despot, and perhaps also link with the custom in the ancient world for absent kings to erect statuary images of themselves to recall their authority exercised through local vice-regents.
I think one of the most important meanings is point 4 (valuable in God's eyes), which liberates us from taking too functional a view of God's gift (rationality, etc.). The fundamental worth of the gravely handicapped surely derives from the fact that they too are bearers of the divine image.
I'm sad we human beings have misapplied our powers of "dominion." I wish we were more like the "caring shepherd-king rather than ... exploitative despot[s]," don't you?
But I believe there's hope if one by one people see themselves as powerful beings given the responsibilities of shepherd-kings, to care for their local ground and consider their global neighbour.
