“In the Image of God, He (God) created (us).” Genesis 1:27

When I first saw the Mona Lisa up close and personal in the Louve in Paris, I was a senior in college studying abroad. It was interesting to me how my first impression of the painting was that it was rather ordinary. Yes beautifully done, but nothing that struck me as to why it was one of the most famous paintings in the world. Yet, as I drew closer I noticed the countenance about the woman in the portrait. There was a radiance about her that I could not describe, and still can’t. Leonardo DiVinci had captured something in this woman. Who was she? Of royal blood? A woman of stature? Hardly. Historians widely agree that the woman in the portrait is Lisa del Giocondo, an Italian woman who married a silk merchant at the age of sixteen, and lived her life as a middle class housewife caring for her six children. Yet in her middle class life there was a presence about her, something that Leonardo captured for all time in that painting.

We All Know People Who Exhibit A Captivating ‘Presence’,

I recently asked the question to a group of people, do you feel like you bear the image of God? The answer that came back was a very uncomfortable and reluctant, “not really”. Some said it was not possible to bear the image of God. Others said that it’s really a matter of God wanting us to bear His image, or to reflect His love. Yet what I love so much about Genesis 1:27 is that its so definitive. God created man and woman in His own image. It does not say He ‘wanted to’, or that He ‘desired to’. It says, He did it! You bear the image of God whether you are ready to admit it or not. The real question is, what does that look like? Without exception I find it in people who express what Jesus Christ talks about in Matthew 5:14, where He said, “you are the light of the world”. When you let Christ live in you, and shine through you to all you meet, you are truly bearing the image of God, and radiating His beautiful presence to a hurting world.