“God's Miniature” No. 1 by Rev. Toru Asai

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Eph 5:1-2).

Those who know how much they are loved by God will also come to love others because children always learn from their parents and imitate what they do without knowing. As children learn their language by hearing and imitating what their parents speak, we learn God's language by hearing and confessing what he says. We are to live by imitating what he does. However, in order to do so, we need to see always what he does and hear what he says. Jesus lived such a life while he was on earth. When a paralytic was healed at the pool of Bethesda, the Jews came to Jesus and accused him because it was a Sabbath. He said to them:

My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working (John 5:17).

The reason he healed the man even on a Sabbath day was that he was always seeing his Father work: so he worked in the same way. Jesus was typical of the Father's miniature. Jesus said:

I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does (v. 19).

Jesus showed us, by living on earth, an example of how we should live as God's miniatures. The truth about this way of living actually goes back to the time of the creation of human beings. The Bible says:

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground (Gen 1:26)."

As we have already learned, the phrases, "in our image," and "in our likeness" themselves reveal that humans are God's miniatures. In addition, the task given to them to rule over the earth also reveals that they are to serve God as his miniatures. The Bible often describes God as the king over the heaven and the earth and over everything he created. He is even described as a commander-in-chief to whom belong all creatures as his army.

The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.
Praise the LORD, you his angels …
Praise the LORD, all his (heavenly) hosts,
you his servants who do his will (Ps 103-19-21).

Here, the word, "his hosts (tseva'av)" in the context refers to God's armies of angels in heaven. And the same word is used in the following verse in the creation story in Genesis.

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their (vast) array (Gen 2:1).

Here, the word "their array (tseva'am)" refers to the entire creation of both heaven and earth, which is an army, and it depicts God the Creator as the supreme ruler, or as a commander-in-chief while man being a sub-ruler over the earth. In this way, man functions as a miniature of God.