People are amazing! But of course, they were made in God’s image. People are just a shadow of an even more amazing God, and instead of chasing the shadow, we are called to seek the real deal. Our hearts are drawn to amazing and wonderful things because we were made to be drawn to God. The wonder in people is supposed to point us to their Maker. If people are projects, God is the one who came up with the idea. All those things that impress us in people were put there to cause us to say “How great is our God.”

However, I often pour all that awe and worship into the wrong cup. I direct it to the person, instead of the Maker of the person, and that enslaves me. Paul describes it as exchanging the truth about God for a lie, and worshiping and serving created things rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).  How does that look? For me, I think “oh my life would be so much better if this person were in it.” I feel special when they are nice to me and not special when they are not. I would even become jealous of them, feel inferior to them, want to be them. I become hyper-aware of the way I act around them, so that they see a flawless image of me, then maybe they will approve of me. In simple terms, we idolize people, and God is not cool with that, He won’t share His glory with anyone.

Like us, other people were made to bring glory and attention to God. The very things that were supposed to draw us into God’s presence, into freedom, enslave us to people when we look at it the wrong way, which is easy to do in this world we live in. We see people from God’s point of view by renewing our minds with the Word of God; speaking the truths of the Bible to the lies that sneak into our minds about people and by the help of the Holy Spirit. When we see people from God’s point of view, we are free, our worship of God is enhanced and we can love people the way God intended. We can truly love, not a half-hearted love of intimidation, fear or pity. We can fully love and have real relationships, because we are not valuing them because of anything else except the fact that God loves them.

We can love without thinking that they are a necessity in our lives, because only God is. God takes back His throne in our hearts and minds, and we are free from the fear of man. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, of power and of a sound mind. Idolizing people or putting anything above God in our heart instills fear in us, weakens our love, drains our power and attacks our sound mind (Romans 1:21-27). We can live and enjoy the life God has made us to live. God, who is the source of all that we are impressed by, is already in love with us and we can't impress Him. Nothing can change that. That sets us free.