a Pause in the Poetry and Rhythm of God's Creation - His image and Community

In the beginning God created.

God said, and it was. Evening and Morning - the first day.
God said, and it was. Evening and Morning - the next day.
God said, and it was. Evening and Morning - the next day......

This rhythm is interrupted in Genesis 1:26 -
Let us make man in our own image.

You are meant to reflect, as disruption in any good piece of poetry would make you do.

God is now engaging in a conversation, with His triune self:

Genesis 1:26 - Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

and then the thesis:

Genesis 1:27 - So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Man and woman TOGETHER, in community, is what bears the image of God. Not a single individual.

In Chapter 2 we see the rhythm of "good" creation being established until:

Genesis 2:18 - It is not good for man to be alone.

The one thing in a good creation that was not good was Adam's solitude. Why? Adam could not bare the divine image of God on His own, as an individual.

Being in community is where we experience what it means to be truly human. Our very nature cries out for it because are very purpose is to bare the image of God.

We are made in the image of our Creator, in an image of our God whose very character is community.

-- for those who are interested in Gospel Community I would HIGHLY recommend Total Church By, Steve Timmis and Tim Chester