Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man in His own image”. This is where I’ve been for the past week or so. If God created man in His own image, then I am an image bearer. You are an image bearer. We all are. Good or bad… Everything we say. Everything we do. We are representatives of Him. We are image bearers.

Recently, a friend read aloud the scriptures in Matthew 25:14-30. This parable was about the master who had entrusted his servants with talents. Those who were faithful with what they were given multiplied what they had. But there was the one servant who hid the talent out of fear. The master punished this servant and called him wicked and lazy.

It hadn’t occurred to me until I heard my friend read that how those two passages of scripture are so connected. The servants… they were representatives of their master. They were to be conducting themselves using what their master had given them. When people had dealings with them, they knew they were dealing with that servant’s master. They were image bearers.

There are things I’ve complained to God about that I’ve been dealing with for a long time now. My whining and complaining skills have been well crafted over the years. And so I was, once again, hiding my head in the sand and planting myself firmly in the “woe is me” stance, because I wasn’t seeing the change I had hoped for.

About a week ago, while praying, I asked God for a word. Just one word. My word… Circles. So I prayed. “OK God… Circles. What circles??? In my spirit, I instantly saw myself running on a track… like on a high school football field. Going in circles… I was carrying a baton. But instead of passing the baton to the next runner, I kept it… and kept running… picking up more batons along the way. Before I knew it, I was loaded with batons and exhausted from running. But I kept running. Something in the bleachers caught my attention. So I looked over and saw God… the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They were sitting in the bleachers. Jesus had a gold medal around his neck. He had already won the race. But I kept running. The more I ran, the further from the bleachers… from God I was. So I prayed again. What am I supposed to do with this? That’s when I heard God say to my spirit that I am an image bearer. I don’t have to keep carrying the many burdens (batons) that Jesus already carried or run the race that Jesus already won. I just need to see myself sitting with them in the bleachers and celebrate that His victory is mine. I am an image bearer. When people see me, they need to see Him… gold medal and all.

Over the past week that’s been a huge comfort and source of strength. Every time the enemy would tempt me to believe a lie, I would remind myself that I am an image bearer. Every time a circumstance would pop up that would normally make me hide my head in the sand and cry, I would remind myself that I am an image bearer. Instead of coming into agreement with the garbage that would be thrown at me, I came into agreement with God… And His very own word says I was made in His image. I AM an image bearer.

That momentum lasted for several days. …Until it didn’t, and I found myself tempted to fall right back in a self pity pit. And then it hit me… I am the unfaithful servant in Matthew. God had given me direction, and I repeatedly hid out of fear. He instructed and equipped me to be an Image Bearer, and I gave up His image to bear the one the enemy told me I should have… Over and over and over.

Is there an image you’ve been bearing that doesn’t belong to God? We all likely have something we’ve just resigned ourselves to. Something we’ve said “this is just how it is” or “this is just who I am” or something like that. But here’s the good news… for all of us. Our story doesn’t end the same as the wicked and lazy servant in Matthew. Our story ends the same way our story began… Through the grace of God we have been gifted with the privilege of being His image bearer. And though we fail… through the mercy of God we’re not punished as unfaithful and wicked. Jesus took that from us. He carried every baton and crossed the finish line in a race we were never qualified to run. And through his victory, we can still stand, bearing His image.