Made in the Image and Likeness of God: How Labels Keep Us From Seeing Individual People

In my large family, I have to navigate a wide variety of personalities and temperaments.  Here’s an example…

One morning, one of my sons re-discovered the drone that he had received for Christmas.  It was now June, and the drone had never been unboxed.

The sound of the packaging getting haphazardly torn apart piqued the curiosity of his younger brother.  Said younger brother immediately grabbed the owner’s manual and read the entire booklet cover to cover.

While he was busy reading, his older brother was playing around with it and managed to assemble it without the help of any old manual.  Because he was feeling extra responsible this particular morning, he decided that it needed a good charging before taking it out on its maiden flight.

Twenty minutes later, his patience was gone, and he decided it was time to fly. 

Younger brother, who had completed reading the entire manual and was now the unofficial expert on the machine, agreed.

Off they went on day 2 of their summer vacation, out the front door and into the exciting world of aviation. 

A successful drone flight... unlike the one in this story.

To reiterate, the owner of the drone never once bothered to look at the manual, and for some reason, his brother, who had read everything there was to read about it, never offered any advice.

I was secretly happy to see the two of them go off together, because I assumed this would occupy them for hours and keep them out of trouble.  I was wrong.

Less than 5 minutes later, they stormed back in.

“MOM!!  Can we go over into Farmer Nick’s field?”

“Absolutely Not!”  I told them.  With the huge cornfield behind our house and the state land that adjoins it, there was no reason for them to terrorize the neighbor.

“But Mom!  We lost the drone somewhere over there!”  The older son hollered as he pointed to the freshly cut hay lying in neat rows on the other side of the road.

“Really?!  How in the world did you manage to do that?”  I asked.

They then told me that the older son didn’t know how to work the controls, so he was playing around with it. The drone managed to climb higher and higher despite pressing every button, until it completely disappeared.

They didn’t know where it had gone, but assumed it had landed somewhere across the road.

Fortunately, we have a great neighbor, and he said he didn’t mind if the boys walked around his field looking for the drone.

They never did find it.  Maybe one of Farmer Nick’s cows will crunch into it one day.  Or maybe it went the opposite direction and took a dip in the lake over on the state land.  Or maybe the combine will chew it up and spit it out this fall. 

Who knows.

When one of my other older sons found out, he just rolled his eyes.  When they told my oldest daughter, she belly laughed.

My drone operator son rushes into things full steam ahead, without regard for consequences.  My manual-reading son loves to research things, but spends so much time doing so that he can’t find the time to do the experiment or project he set out to research.  My oldest has no time for childish behavior, and my daughter finds humor in every situation.

My youngest four are still too young to really have a good sense of their temperaments.  But even just looking at these 4, they cover such a wide swath of the personalities.  

God, in His absolute wisdom, created us like this for a reason.  We need risk-takers, methodical individuals, practical thinkers, and optimistic ones.  We complement one another and challenge each other. 

We LOVE to add the labels—Myers-Briggs, StrengthsFinder, DISC assessment, etc.

I am a HUGE fan!  I believe that we should be studying ourselves.  The more we learn about ourselves, the more we can study our habits and tendencies, allowing us to develop godly virtues.  It’s about being intentional.  It also allows us some grace when we learn the temperaments and traits of those around us.

But I have always believed that we are more than a label.  Just because I fall into a certain category doesn’t permit me to act a certain way.  As a sanguine, it doesn’t allow me to disrespect those around me by showing up late to everything, or being so unorganized that others suffer as a result.  I need to recognize my weaknesses so that I can continue to grow.

But labels don’t just stop at personality traits.  We throw on so many other labels as well.  Liberal, Conservative, Millennial, Gen Z, Nationalist, Globalist, White collar, Blue collar, Type A, Type B, Introverted, Extroverted, and we can go back to our younger days and say something as ridiculous as popular and geek.  This list could go on and on, but the point is clear.

We love organizing people into groups as it helps our brains understand them better.  Labels can be handy in helping us find like-minded people, perhaps.  But it can also be incredibly damaging, as we can forget to see the actual person behind our label.

We are all made in the image and likeness of God.  We are all fearfully and wonderfully made!  And the most amazing part is that we are all absolutely unique.  God knows us by name as a special creation.

He didn’t create us to limit ourselves to being a vegetarian, or a humanitarian, or an apiarian (that’s a fancy way of saying bee keeper 😊, and it rhymed!)  We are incredibly complex beings who can possess many labels, but our ONLY true identity is Beloved.  Our Creator has imprinted the indelible features of His image into every one of us because He loves us.

Beloved is our only true identity.

Dear Lord,

Thank You for loving me into existence.  Thank You for creating me in Your image and likeness.  Thank you for creating me with my unique personality and temperament.  Thank you for the personalities and temperaments of the people around me.  Please help me to see the people in my life as the unrepeatable person that they are.  They have dignity because You desired them and created them.  I praise You, I love You, I adore You. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Until next time, your sister in Christ,

Leah