Setup: Two circles facing each other.
Transition: "Mirroring takes focus. We're made to reflect God's image with intention."
Setup: Open space + upbeat music.
Transition: "Every part has purpose—God made us strong, creative, unique."
Hebrew: צֶלֶם (tselem, image) • קָנָה (qanah, form/acquire) • סָכַךְ (sakhakh, knit/cover) • רָקַם (raqam, embroider)
If God calls our bodies "wonderfully made," what happens when we criticize our looks or compare ourselves to others? What does that say about how we see His creation?
Summary: God made every part of you with intention. Your body is valuable, not shameful. When we treat it with respect and gratitude, we reflect His image to the world.
Action: "I thank God for my body because ____."
Hebrew writers often structured revelation like a mirror — the first half rises toward a center of meaning, then descends in reverse order.
A → B → C → B′ → A′
The center (C) carries the heart of the theology — the hinge where divine purpose and human identity meet.
A. "Let us make humankind in our image… rule the earth."
B. So God created humankind in his own image,
C. In the image of God he created him,
B′. Male and female he created them,
A′. God blessed them: "Be fruitful and fill the earth and subdue it."
Chiastic emphasis: Humanity (A–A′) is created for vocation — to reflect God's dominion in fruitful stewardship. At the center (C) lies Imago Dei — our being itself mirrors God's being; the two halves (B/B′) reveal male and female together as the full expression of that image.
A. For you formed my inmost being (קָנִיתָ כִלְיוֹתָי)
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
B. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that well.
C. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret,
embroidered in the depths of the earth.
B′. Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
all my days were written in your book before one of them came to be.
A′. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast the sum of them!
Chiastic emphasis: God's forming and knowing mirror each other (A/A′). The center (C) reveals the sacred hiddenness of creation — life as divine artistry "woven in the depths of the earth." The surrounding halves (B/B′) celebrate both the wonder and foreknowledge of that creation.
Summary: God's cosmic image becomes visible in the intimate artistry of every life; honoring our bodies is part of our vocation to reflect Him.