Day 2 – Created Good to Create Good
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
– Ephesians 2:10
I grew up in San Antonio, TX, and some of my most memorable moments as a child were when my dad and mom would pack the whole family in the Astro van, and we would drive down to the beach, either to Galveston Island or Corpus Christi. As a little boy, I enjoyed playing in the sand and I was particularly excited to build sand castles. I remember getting my hands into the sand, forming walls and corner towers, surrounding the castle walls with a moat, and building nearby forts and villages. I would use my hands and my creativity to build something I thought was the greatest thing ever: a sand castle!
When I read Ephesians 2, it takes me back to Genesis when God created the world and when He created man. In Genesis 2 it says, “The Lord God formed man of dust from the ground.” He was creating what he thought was the greatest thing ever; not a sand castle, but mankind.
With God’s hands in the sand I imagine he uttered: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Then He blessed his creation and said, “Be fruitful.” Then God saw all that He had made was very good. (Genesis 1)
Parents and pastors, as we send our children back to school let us not forget that they are God’s treasured creation, created in His image and for His glory. Or as the book of Ephesians might say, our students were created good to create good. We can encourage our students to show God how much they love Him by doing the “good works” that he has prepared for them to do in school. Parents, remind them that God created them in Christ Jesus not to be a bad student but to be a good student, and not so that they could bring home bad grades but good grades. Pastors, let your students know that God is saying over them, “I am sending you to your school, not to be a curse but a cure, not to be a bully but a blessing, not for you to fail but to finish, not for you to quit but to conquer, and not just for you to get by but to fly.”
God created our children in his image so that they could do the good works he has prepared for them to do. Let’s pray that our students will love and worship God with good works as they head back to school.
– Girien Salazar
