Cold Stone and the Image of God

A few weeks ago I went to Cold Stone Creamery and saw the image of God on display. Nobody was preaching a sermon or leading a Bible Study, nor was there any earth-shattering event like a bolt of lightning or a burning bush. But for a few minutes I watched one young woman reflecting the image of our Maker before my very own eyes.

When God created the universe, we're told in Genesis 1:2 that the world was formless and empty. The rest of Genesis 1 explains how God brought order out of the disorder and chaos to fashion a world in which man and woman could flourish. God took the raw materials of creation and, figuratively speaking, got His hands dirty making something of the material world.

Then, after creating Adam in His image, 'The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it' (Genesis 2:15). Being made in God's image means being made to create; not out of nothing, like God did, but by making something of the world which God has given to us. Genesis 1 depicts God bringing order out of chaos, and then He tells the man, 'Now you do in the Garden what I have done throughout the world.'

To work is to take the raw materials of a particular domain and to draw out its potential, molding those raw materials into something which enables the human society to flourish. Over the centuries, many commentators have taken this charge to work and keep the garden as dealing with more than just agriculture, but the formation of human culture and civil society.

Which brings me back to Cold Stone on that Wednesday night a few weeks ago. The young woman making my cup of Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate chip is bearing the image of our Creator God, whether she knows it or not. What has she done in making me that sundae? She's taken some raw materials (mint cream, one chocolate brownie, and chocolate chips), she picks up her tools and begins to make something out of those raw materials.

She cultivates them, digging and molding and fashioning them into something more than was there to start with. Mint cream is good, and so is a brownie and chocolate chips. But in molding them together, she's brought out some of the potential of those raw materials. She's made a little bit of culture. She is doing in her domain what God had called Adam to do in the Garden of Eden thousands of years before her.

If the girl who 'dug up' my dessert happened to be a Christian, then surely she would also want to lovingly share the Gospel with her co-workers and customers, and to work with integrity and faithfulness as a way of adorning the teaching of Christ as her Savior. But even in the simple act of making my delicious dessert, she has reflected the glory of God. Her job is, therefore, full of dignity and value in God's sight. She should experience joy in the awesome privilege of imaging forth her Maker in the domain He has called her to, whether she had any opportunities to share the Gospel that day or not. For God is a lavish Creator, and He created us to be creators.

I used to go to Cold Stone just to fill my belly; but now I also admire the God who is being reflected in our most 'ordinary' acts of making something of His world.

Is anyone else getting hungry?