“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:”

Years of abuse did not prepare me for the good life. As a child, I felt unloved, unwanted, unintelligent and unattractive. As an adult, I lived with these feelings, and it prevented me from having any kind of a decent life. I made one bad choice after another for many years. I rejected anything that had to do with religion, the Bible, etc. as those were things my abuser embraced. In my mid-forties, I discovered a Good God, a Loving God, and everything started to change.

The Bible states in Genesis, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:” When I look in a mirror I see my image, but I’m pretty sure God is not human, so what is His image and likeness? It must be spiritual, as God is Spirit, and like produces like. 🙂 So, if God is good then as his image, reflection, I inherit all his good qualities.

Another eye-opener in that quote is the word “our.” To me that meant that there are two aspects to God, he is both Comforter and Protector. Those are male and female qualities, so God is not just Father; he is both Father and Mother. To me, that means, if we are his complete image, that we all have both those qualities.

Knowing these things is a start, but learning how to live that truth is another thing. I had to learn how to incorporate this new understanding into my life. My actions had to state who I was as God’s reflection.

Our Constitution and Bill of Rights, declares, “Man is endowed by his Maker with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” I felt like I was on my way now.

We are all looking for a way to express our own unique identity. I was learning that identity is expressing God’s qualities, God’s nature. Some of those characteristics are: artistic, attractive, confident, creative, expressive, honest, intuitive, prepared, reliable, satisfied, strong, and unlimited. There are many more words, but they would fill the whole page, so will stop here; I think you get the idea.

We all have a special talent. I didn’t know what mine was for many years. In fact, I didn’t know what it was until it hit me in the face. It was one of those WOW moments. It happened when I finally got my life on track. I had just been hired on a new job and was well on my way to recovery. I was starting to feel good about myself for the first time in my life. Now I had to put into practice everything I’d been learning about expressing God’s nature, and how to deal with life’s varied situations.

I was doing well on my new job and quickly moving into a place of comfort and respect. When walking down the halls, I held my head up instead of looking at the floor. A new me was emerging from the ashes of darkness.

After eight years with the company, they installed a new computer system, and everyone got new computers. There was an application called Crystal Reports integrated with the company software, Macola. I was one of two people designated to learn Macola and train everyone on it. That was the easy part. A lot of hard work but to me, it felt like fun.

Crystal is a report writing software that no one in the company had a clue how to use. The company that sold us the software created a few reports for the VP to get us started. It turned out I was the only one in the company interested in learning it. I took those reports and taught myself how to create some simple reports. As time went on, I kept getting better at it.

By the time the VP asked me to enroll in a class, the instructor asked me some questions and placed me in the intermediate class, I was better than a beginner but not quite ready for the advanced class yet. 🙂 I had found my Niche. I loved Crystal. It allowed me to be creative, and do things I never dreamed I could do.  For me, it wasn’t working, it was fun.

Speaking of dreams, I have to tell you this. There was a report that the VP wanted but the company that sold us Crystal and supported it, said it couldn’t be done. Well, they also told us when we purchased it that anything that was in Macola, we could pull into Crystal and report on it. Well, what the VP wanted was in Macola, so I decided it could be done and went to work on it. 

I worked on it, and it was all I thought about for a couple weeks. I barely got my other work done. Everything I tried didn’t work. I was about to give up when it happened. One night after work when I was getting ready for bed, I was mentally going over everything I’d done, trying to figure out why it wasn’t working. That night I dreamed the full creation of that report, start to finish, it became so clear what I had to do. I could hardly wait to get to work in the morning.

When I got to work, I started putting the report together, just a little at a time. After each little bit I would run the report and see if it still worked, and it did. When I reached a certain point, I went to the VP with what I had. He was thrilled; he was going to get his report.

I’ve talked in previous blogs about how God talks to us. That night in my sleep when I was completely relaxed with only one thought in my head that report, God popped in to remind me that I reflect his quality of intelligence and I wasn’t ignorant as I was raised to believe. He is always there for me, giving me everything I need when I need it. At that moment I needed to know that.

This was my talent. God gave it to me and would not let me fail. I have worked for this company going on 30 years. Recent years I’ve only been a consultant. I tried to retire, but that was as close as I got. No one at the company knows how to create or maintain Crystal Reports, so I am still doing that for them. I don’t work many hours, but every once in a while they come up with a project for me.

Expressing God’s qualities is a joy, we can all do it. God is a loving parent and gives us the strength to overcome all obstacles that would try to prevent us from manifesting his qualities. There is nothing that happens in our life that we can’t get through if we follow God’s lead. He is always there for me, and he is there for you. We are his Image and Likeness. We are like him and reflect his nature, and we can express his qualities here and now.