Speaker: Darlene Sala | Series: Encouraging Words | Image is so important to a woman. Her appearance and the impression she makes matter very much to her.

Women want to know what the “look” is for this season so they can have the “correct image.” Are skirts going to be short, medium, or long? What is the most important part of make-up this year—the lips or the eyes? Should I have the suntanned look or more natural? What’s in—casual and comfortable or tight-fitting styles?

We women are interested in image because we get part of our sense of self-esteem from our “image” or appearance. I’m quick to admit it’s a pretty surface kind of self-esteem, but we do tend to feel better about ourselves when we look nice.

Image is talked about in the Bible, too—but it’s not the image of fashion. It’s the image of God.  Because Adam, the first man, was created in God’s image, we too are all created in the image of no less than the eternal God Himself. In Genesis, the very first book in the Bible, we read that God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness….” So God created man in his own image…male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:26, 27).

Being made in God’s image means that our bodies are valuable, not something to be mistreated or misused. But because we are eternal beings, it also means that what is spiritual in our lives is more important than what is physical.

Angie Conrad writes,

I have never read any verse in Scripture spelling out what constitutes a perfect body image. There are no biblical specifications of how much we should weight, what color our hair should be or the sizes of our noses, ears, or feet. God is concerned with the condition of our hearts, not our physical features. Although we may never fit in society’s image, we are made in His image.[1]

Made in the image of God! What a privilege!  What better image could we have?

 

 

[1]  Angie Conrad, “The Not-So-Perfect Image,” TapestryMagazine, (Atlanta, GA: Vol. 13, Number 1, January 2006), no page number.