No One Culture

Often at City Church, we talk about the imago Dei, the incredible goodness of our original design, reflecting the very image of God.  Listen to one of the Bible’s opening scenes:

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.  God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” - Gen. 1:27-28

Now in the same creation story, we find that this new humanity was meant to multiply and to move - to have children who had children who had children, and would migrate and spread and adapt and fill the earth in a variety of places and conditions, to cultivate and create with ingenuity and diversity.  Pastor and author Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil describes this “cultural mandate” this way in her book, Roadmap to Reconciliation:

“When God commanded the first human beings to ‘fill the earth,’ it was a decree to create cultures, because no one culture, people or language can adequately reflect the splendor of God.”

Do you hear the implications - diversity is the original design! For it’s together in our cultural diversity that we show the imago Dei more fully.  Why don’t you take a few minutes this morning to wonder about and thank Jesus for the goodness in your own cultural heritage - the shared stories, ideas, art, food and other traditions that have been passed to you.  And then look for an opportunity in your day to ask a friend with a different background what they appreciate about their own cultural heritage.