"Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness..." (Gen 1:26)
Today my family and I went to the Milwaukee Museum. I've been there quite a number of times, but like reading the Bible every time I wander through it something new strikes me.
The museum covers quite a lot of human history, of different people from diverse climates, of multiple cultures from poles apart places and ages: the ice age, Native Americans, Samoan islands, Neanderthal, the rainforests, Taiwanese, ancient Greece, Andes mountains, Peruvians, Japanese... and so much more. People, places, time, cultures, societies ... different, diverse, strange and familiar. The climate ever changing from warm to cold to dry to wet: desert, water, plains, mountains and deciduous.
As I looked upon the artifacts of these various and sundry people - from headhunters to sailors to miners to plains tribes Indians to Milwaukean brewers drafting their beers and the places they lived and how they worked and what was important to each - I thought to myself even with all these differences they still have something (at least this something) in common.
Each one, every person, every being - no matter color, nor culture, nor time, nor place - was and is and always will be created in the image of God. God imbued all of humanity with characteristics that are godlike. This doesn't mean we are god, nor should we aspire to be gods. But we have the characteristics of God - we are made in God's image.
We have the ability to love, and show mercy, to have grace and to forgive, and to create with our own hands using the creative imaginations God blessed us with. This struck me significantly today as I saw the wide variety of tools people used to cultivate land, or shape wood, or mold clay pots. I looked at the styles of sailing vessels people used when navigating the waterways. I saw the weavings and sewings and stitching and materials and cloth and silk and reeds and skins the people used to cover themselves. I held the pots and vessels and plates and eating wares and drinking chalices and marveled at their uniqueness.
I saw the different homes represented in which these beautiful people lived, from one end of the globe to the other; spanning time from one age to the next.
And in all of this I was amazed! I saw things of creation made at the hands of man and woman. Tools used to shape the things they would need to survive, to build the homes in which they would live; to make the canoes and sailing vessels that they might navigate the seas and water ways and too, the navigational tools in which to get around on vast seas. I saw the heavy merino woolen serapes and capes used to keep mountaineers warm in the snowy heights. There is so much more to describe, yet let this suffice....
In all these differences - peoples, places, climates, and cultures and societies one thing was similar. All that was made was made with intentional and deliberate beauty imagined and ingrained. God who created all the world - the universe and everything - created with great beauty. The world itself is of breathtaking beauty. The beings and creatures roaming and swimming and flying through our world are of exceedingly intricate beauty. And the people made in God's image are beautiful.
A simple covering (for modesty or to keep the elements off and out) was imbued with color - at times the iridescent blues of the Blue Morpho didius butterfly; at times with the reds and oranges woven intricately to reflect the glorious colors of the setting desert sun.
A simple sailing vessel, a reed canoe, was artfully crafted with a myriad of beautifully designed patterns - it would not do to simply make a vessel that floats. It must look beautiful as well!
Ancient Grecian pottery, not content to merely hold water or wine, it must be artistically made with designs and colors with ridges and rills and graceful narrow necks - far beyond what was necessary to hold liquids or plates to heft dinner.
China, ivory, gold, valuable woods, silk cloth, bejeweled boxes... All far above and beyond the need to accomplish their base design.
All made by human hands echoing the beauty seen in God's own creation - from the brilliant plumage of the Birds of Paradise, to the iridescent wings of butterflies, or the iridescent carapaces of the Egyptian beetle, to the grandeur of beautifully tall standing trees and the liquid beauty of blossoming moon flowers.
The things of beauty we strive to create are but mere imitation of the Master's creations, and yet we honor the Creator in our desire to imitate.
