In the late 1920s, D. J. DePree, the president of the Herman Miller furniture company, and his colleague James Eppinger saw the company sliding toward bankruptcy. Often traveling together by train, they had much time to ponder their situation.
One day they decided not to focus on what was wrong with their company but with the furniture industry as a whole. They listed 15 things, one of which was the belief that if you worked with your hands, you were common; if you worked with your mind, you were uncommon, or superior.
Although DePree was an evangelical Christian and Eppinger a devout Jew, they came to the same conclusion: All people were created in God's image, and therefore everyone is special. Today Herman Miller Inc. is respected in the corporate world for its outstanding labor/management relations.
How differently we would look at people if we really saw them as bearing the image of their Creator! Racial, ethnic, social, and other barriers would begin to fall.
Lord, forgive us for so often seeing ourselves as superior to others. Help us to remember that before sin distorted our thinking about ourselves and others, we were all, and still are, unique people created in Your image. — Dennis J. De Haan
Of all creation's treasures rare,
Not one compares in worth with man;
In God's own image he was made
To fill a place in His great plan. —D. De Haan
Our value is not measured in what we make of ourselves, but by the One who made us.