I heard this awesome statement from the lips of Dr Ravi Zacharias: “[If] you want to walk through life with wisdom, I suggest you do two things: stay with the word [of God] and number two, get to know somebody who has endured a lot and whose faith has remained unshaken… whose faith and integrity are still intact.”
In recent times, I have become an ardent follower of the ministry of Dr Ravi Zacharias who passed on to glory some weeks ago. I had looked forward to a day I would meet with him on this side of eternity.
There are a couple of reasons for which I was drawn to him. They include among others, his passion for the Lord, for people and the gospel; his integrity and simplicity and the clarity with which he presented the case for Christ. In addition to these was his great sense of humour.
In line with the thought of this article, I recollect a story he told of a child who confronted the mother. “Daddy says we came from apes but you tell us we are really created in the image of God. What do I believe? And she said ‘Son dad can only tell you of his side of the family. I can tell you about my side of the family.”
I wrote the following article sometime in 2009 to an email audience consisting mostly of my classmates from the 1982 graduating class of Edo College, Benin City. I felt it would be nice to ‘resurrect ‘it, as it was a sequel to the blog I sent last week: Pearls of Great Price – Having a Healthy Image of Oneself.
So God created people in His own image; God patterned them after Himself; male and female he created them. …Adam was the son of God.
Do you know that you carry the stamp of God’s DNA? The very essence of your life is the same as that of your creator. There is no human being that is born of a monkey none has their nature or looks like one. No, not in any fashion or form!
What does “monkey” have to do with this? I would not bore you with the “pseudo-scientific” assumptions of the Darwinian theory of Evolution, propounding among other claims, how man is supposed to have evolved from lower animal-life forms or the various shades of clams and counterclaims by other schools of thought. I am not even going to belabour you with the nitty-gritty of the creation narrative.
Everybody believes in something. Some believe they descended from monkeys… ah! Ok… great apes. Others believe God created them. You guessed right. I believe I am God’s offspring.
I do not believe I am a monkey’s son. I believe you are too. “Me! Are you calling me a monkey’s son?” No, I mean you are God’s offspring. And, if you have been reading my articles, it wouldn’t take you much to recognize where my loyalty lies – in the Bible. My life has become rooted in it.
“For in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘for we are also his offspring’”
Where or from whom you believe you originate from is like your image-compass, it sets ‘true north’ for the way you value yourself. No matter where you turn to, or what you achieve, you are always pointed in that direction.
The way you see yourself is a foundation upon which you build your life; the way you live your life; the way you see others within relation to yourself and the way you relate with them.
Friend, this is beyond monkey talk. Because you cannot sincerely have a good image of yourself and others believing you descended from monkeys no matter how distant the trail goes backwards. It creates a crisis of identity. In any case, you may not even believe in the theory of evolution, still, the principle applies. Your self-perception is vital to your overall well-being.
You may have had imbued in your subconscious a warped sense of who or what you are or should be because of what others said or did to you in the past. Nevertheless, who and what you are ought not to be defined by circumstances or by people, not even by yourself.
We did not create ourselves. The One who made us knows exactly what He made, and it is He that has the true knowledge of who and what we are. The true perception of what is known as “self-image,” should be the image God made you and has of you.
However, what is the right way to see ourselves? David asked God, “Why is man so important to you? Why are you so concerned about them?” He goes further to state the reason why he is asking the questions- “you made them a little lower than the angles (heb. Elohim, which means God) and crowned them with glory and honour. You put them in charge of everything you made.”
You mean so much to your creator. You are important to him, for He is your life source. In my article “A Pearl of Great Price,” I spoke of the value God places on us, in that He literally sent His Son to pay the ultimate price in our stead.
Do not let the challenges of life put you down, nor allow what anyone has said concerning you that is not consistent with God’s view of you, get in the way of your life, just like it happened to the Peter I mentioned in the previous article. Have they placed labels on you? Well, that is just what they are- labels. The labels are not who you are!
Believe in God. He says you are priceless. See yourself as He sees you. Believe in you. Live for him!
Thank you. Do not forget to keep living, loving and learning.
References: Genesis 1:26, NLT; Luke 3:38, NCV; Acts 17:28, NKJV; Psalm 8:4-6.
Pearls of Great Price – Having a Healthy Image of Oneself.
