A long time ago in the uncharted regions of heaven, God imagined world of light and love, a world of peace and security, a world without fear or frustration or rejection. It would be the perfect setting for the people he had in mind—people made in his image. These people would become the unique beneficiaries of his unending love.

    Then, God spoke the words and made it so. Out of a shapeless void, he created a perfect world. But the finale of his creative masterpiece was mankind. He took dirt from the new ground and transformed it into the first human being. In all the universe only this creature was made in the image of the creator. With God’s own breath, the creature became a living, divine original—personally autographed by the Creator God.

So God created human beings in his image. In the image of God he created them. GENESIS 1:27

    God’s new person was more than a biological marvel. Mankind was designed to reason independent of instinct, to dream and sing and express emotion, to create and build and invent, to feel love and compassion and hope, to ask why and why not. Hidden deep within was an unnamed restlessness, a yearning for God, a spiritual legacy—the unique part of mankind that carries in it the presence of God. In the best way possible the creature took after the creator. A touch of the divine made God’s creation more than flesh and blood, more than life. The creature received an eternal soul.

    Everything was in its place. The greatest saga of love had begun, and God, the author of it all, was pleased.

Reflection: Every person God makes is still a divine original with a divine legacy—a soul. The soul is our birthday gift from the creator, the home of our spiritual essence, the source of our yearning for life beyond ourselves. Although the soul cannot be humanly explained or adequately described, it is, at the deepest level, everything we are. And our souls are just as eager to live in constant relationship with the creator as was the soul of the first human.