Diamonds in the ruff?

Mandy and I were talking earlier and she was trying to help me see past some of the scars on my soul.  Part of doing that had her telling me that the farther away from IFB teaching she gets, the more clearly she sees herself in “the mirror”.  She told me she’s finding peace with herself the more she sees God the way the Bible says He is.  As is often the case, I was confused and asked her to explain.

The Bible talks about having created man in God’s image.  It says, male and female, He created them both.  So, if we are God’s image, then He must embody both genders, right?  Then she said, if God embodies both genders, why do we think it matters so much how we love?  Good question!  I was following her train of thought, so she continued.

“Let’s take God out of the picture for a sec” she said to me.  “Jesus came to the earth preaching love.”  He broke the religious rules of the time because he cared for and about people.  Preaching love and compassion and doing good ended up getting Him killed.  Bringing God back into the picture, Jesus said all the commandments could be broken down into 2; love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.  Then she told me “this command is a circle.  The more you love God, the more you can love yourself and love others.  The more you can love yourself, the more you can love God and others, and the more you can love others, the more you can love yourself and God.  Strange how that works, but I think she’s on to something.

Mandy then said to me that she thinks the IFB and most religion in general have this whole “Christianity thing” backward.  All our lives we were taught we are diamonds in the rough and that it is our job to let God take us, cut away all the parts that don’t belong and shape us into a perfect and beautiful gem.  But if we think of our creation in that way, it means God created something that wasn’t perfect to begin with, doesn’t it?

When the world was first created, it was perfect, right?  Everything God created, He said was good.  Then humans came along and broke the creation.  She told me she believes “what this broken world does breaks God’s heart, so the idea of His Son dying to fix what has been broken wasn’t as painful to Him as it was to watch us in daily pain”  That’s an overwhelming thought.  God has perfect eyes, so from our birth, He sees the priceless gem He created, before our parents and the world had a chance to cover us in dirt and filth (sin if you will).  When Jesus died, He gave us the tools to scrape all that junk off and see the truth of our creation.

For me, that thought begs another question:  If the world is broken, and we’re born into something broken, does God really expect us to live as though we had the perfect creation like Adam did?  Is God so unreasonable He expects the impossible from us?  After all, that’s what the IFB does!  But God knows what He created, and what kind of world we live in.  He already sees us as the perfect gem He created, and not what we can do for or give to Him.  Therefore, nothing the world does can change God’s view of how He created us, because He can see through dirt and filth!

So if God can see through the dirt and crap, why do we refuse to?  Jesus died to take away the monster we see in the mirror.  His death gave us back our original value.  He purchased our guilt, shame, worthlessness and every other emotion we use to look at ourselves negatively.  The more we allow Jesus to take with Him those things He paid for; we can begin to see past the mask the IFB has forced us to wear.   Living in the dirt and muck the world created for us has put the ‘rough around the gemstone’ but hasn’t destroyed the truth of what’s really there.  Our real challenge then becomes to strip away the muck, and surround ourselves with people who will help the true brilliance shine forth.