Kids & Michelangelo

Picture two small children. A girl and a boy. They are in an enormous garden. The sound of running water mixes with the girl singing words that we can faintly make out. She lets her voice fly as she concentrates on the flower twirling in her little hand. There is joyous wonder in her face. Nearby, the boy is drawing in the dirt. As he doodles along, he digs his bare feet into the soil; squishing and releasing pebbles with his toes. There is limitless imagination in his eyes.

Suddenly a voice calls to them. Though the sound originates from a distance, they hear it as if it is whispered individually into their ears. Despite their bliss, the emergence of this calling brings an even larger smile to their faces. Instantaneous warmth permeates from them. They look at one another and run together in the direction of God.

Now look at Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam". Reproduced a million times yet nothing takes away from the original depiction. If you view it from the lens of Genesis, we see how we are made in the image of God. Even though the two hands are not touching, you can feel the Spirit moving from the Creator to creation – the pull between one another and the two completing the same motion.

Now examine it under the lens of John 1:1. Man(kind) with its hand fully stretched out for help... and God, with just a finger, reaching out to touch man. Rescuing us. Jesus Christ has given us renewal of what we were meant to be.

All with a simple touch from God.

While we may customarily picture Adam and Eve as being adults perfectly created from the beginning, I suggest we try and view them as literal children being raised by God. They grew up in relationship with him, but eventually fell. Jesus was also born into this world as a child.

The difference is He succeeded.

"Jesus Christ is the fullest expression of what God intends humanity to be."