Picture Perfect

Most of us have a camera somewhere in our houses. Due to massive developments in technology that have produced smaller, lighter, and less expensive models, almost every phone and computer comes with a camera installed. Lives are lived out through pictures on Instagram.

As we move about in public every day, our moves are recorded by CCTV. We use our cameras to share memories of the best days, to catch beautiful sunsets over the bay on holiday, or just to liven up our wall on Facebook and let everyone know what we are doing.

The purpose of a camera is to save real life images. The purpose of a real life image is to freeze the moment and represent it in the future. Pictures can remind us of events or things for which we were present or help us experience events or things that we have never actually seen ourselves.

In my last post, we learned that God has revealed Himself through creation and His Word in the Bible. While those are excellent ways to get to know God, this is still not the full picture of Him. So God sent Jesus Christ to be "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15) so that we see Him perfectly.

We have just noted that one of the purposes of an image is to show us something we have never seen before. When Paul wrote that Jesus was the image of God in Colossians, he was showing us how we can see someone we have never seen. As Jesus lived here on earth, His every thought, word, and action was a display—an image—of God. Jesus said, "Whoever sees me sees Him who sent me," (John 12:45) and "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). In Jesus, the invisible God of creation and the Old Testament became visible to every eye.

God had never been seen with the naked eye before, but He has been clearly manifest in Jesus Christ. If we want to see who God is and what God is like, now we can know. The Bible gives a clear image in the record of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection—not to mention all the other truths that are explained for us in the rest of the New Testament about Him.

One of the most important aspects of choosing a camera is the quality of the image it will produce. As a result of that decision, we might choose to buy a camera with high megapixels and HD settings to make sure we get as accurate an image as possible. However, no image, no matter how good the camera is, will be ever perfectly represent what we experience firsthand.

There is one exception: Jesus Christ. He is the exact, entirely accurate, and fully true image of God. He can be this because He is God Himself. Through Christ, we can know both who God is and what He is like.

I would urge you to go and see Him for yourself today!

—M. A. Craig

Writer: M. A. Craig

M. A. Craig loves the outdoors (not great when you live in rainy Northern Ireland). He is a follower of Jesus, husband to Chloe, theologian, writer, and "father" to Lucy the pug.

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