Devotional--Caleb, part I

Good morning!  First of all, I'd like to explain the delay.  Caleb Ralston Jones was born on Monday, October 3.  Our life has been quite a bit different in the last week than it was in the weeks before, and we're both still trying to catch up!  He is wonderful and healthy, and you can click here to see pictures of him.  

We've been focusing on sin, but I'd like to focus a bit on what I've learned from Caleb.

Genesis 1:26-27

26 Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind* in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth,* and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’
27 So God created humankind* in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 

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  My son is created in the image of God.  There are real implications about how I am called to treat him.  I have to remember that he has been stamped in the mold of the divine, that life has been breathed into him by the same one who spoke the universe into being.  One of my biggest responsibilities is to help him see and understand this about himself--that because he is created in the image of God, he is called to lead a life worthy of being a Christian.  Also, I am called to help him see that nothing in life can remove that label from him--he is forever worthy.

  Also, I am called to show him that there are responsibilities about how he treats other people.  We are called to love our neighbors and our enemies, because each of them are made in the image of God.  Human life is never cheap, and each person is crafted by the hand of a Creator.  No matter how much others may frustrate us, we have to love them, because they are stamped with the divine, just as we are.

Blessings