There is so much hardship and hurt in the world. No doubt. As a result, our perspective of the world and how we view people and even ourselves is greatly impacted.

For example, do we believe the best about someone is the truth about them, or rather, do we believe the worst about someone is the truth about them?

Clearly, everyone is a capable of both good and bad, and we all act out as such.

If someone is a gossiper and says unkind things about others, does this make them truly bad to the core? Is this their true self – a gossiper who can’t be trusted?

Or is this someone struggling with deep insecurities because they themselves struggle with feeling invaluable, unwanted, and rejected? So, they grasp for any “validation” they can, even at the extreme of tearing others down in a desperate attempt to create a false sense of self worth by comparison?

If so, do we now see this person differently? We may still not respect, or trust them, but can we now see their pain, struggle, and why they may do what they do? Though their behavior is harmful and not well, perhaps behind all that is a person with deep wounds.

God sees all our wounds – and amazingly, He loves us anyway. In fact, He loves us so much, He left heaven to save us, to love us, to help us, and to heal us. None of us are perfect, and each of us has failings, but He sees beyond all that.

We may have forgotten Genesis chapter 1, but He hasn’t. Genesis 1 tells us plainly that at the very beginning we were created in His image and that all His creation is good. Again, His creation is good, and we are created in His image. As such, at our essence, at our core, all people are made in His image. We are His masterpiece, we are wanted, we are loved, and we are pursued.

Sin however enters the picture and tarnishes everything and everyone. It pollutes what was clean. Like sewage in the water, it harms, and hurts – but it doesn’t replace what it all was first created to be, and by whom it was created.

The same is true for us. We may be born into this sewage and stained by it, but that doesn’t change who we are at the core. Jesus came to clean all that up. To heal us and reveal the real us. He rescues us from the sewage. That doesn’t mean we still won’t stumble, for we are all still surrounded by sewage. Unfortunately, we aren’t removed from it – yet, but we are no longer stained and marked by it once we have Him.

Yes, we are all polluted by sin, but that is not who we are at the core, or who we are meant to be. This would indicate the worst of us is not the truth of us, and that all of us are in desperate need of Jesus to save us, to clean us, heal us and restore us. As He does, more of the best of us is revealed – for indeed, His image is the truth of us.

All life has worth. All life has value. All life has intrinsic beauty endowed by our Creator. For we are all made in His image. Jesus came to save us from the sewage of sin, to give us new hearts, and a new life as we are washed clean by our faith in Him. We are now light amidst the darkness, restoring beauty, and offering rescue to all still engulfed by the sewage.