Seamless Lives of Faith | Genesis 1:27
Ryleigh Wallace ‘25
“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them.”
The Fellows at the National Gallery
The Falls Church Fellows have officially lived together with the NOVA community, TFCA, and one another for more than a month - and what an eventful month it has been!
Certainly, this first month has brought challenges, with many aspects of our post-grad lives expanding in new ways. However, with each individual challenge, a multitude of blessings are also present—not least of which is the blessing to have time and space to start well in these post-grad lives. The Fellows program grants us time and space in which we can practice and cultivate vocational discernment, interpersonal intentionality, and spiritual growth. Moreover, it provides an environment that fosters a better understanding of what it means to both live fully human and seek seamless lives of faith. Most recently, a consistent theme we have encountered within the context of starting well is that of knowing and being known.
While this theme is often a fundamental assumption of our identity for Christians, it is nonetheless a formative and important reminder. God is relational, and just as God is relational, so also are we relational. Made in His likeness for community and with purpose, the human experience is one that desires the knowledge and fellowship of the church as a body of believers. Genesis 1:27 declares this, saying, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
The September sermon series, taught by the Rev. Dr. Sam Ferguson, focused on what it means to live an authentic and fulfilling human life in an understanding of humanity’s central essence, through the reflection of Jesus Christ as the truest human. Titled “Becoming Like the Real Jesus, Together,” this sermon series reminded TFCA and the fellows that Jesus’s true humanity is encapsulated in his sonship, servanthood, glory, and eternality (as both the true human and the heavenly man).
Likewise, this idea was cultivated throughout this month’s seminary classes and seminar lectures, and in the everyday, ordinary life that is lived in community. Specifically, the fellows have explored what it means to live fully human lives through the lens of Genesis 1-3. With opportunities to listen to, learn from, and engage with these chapters, we are brought back to the essentials of the beginning of humanity. As the first three chapters of Genesis remind us, humanity is created with an intended purpose. It is in these scripture verses that we encounter the first desires to know and to be known.
To (1) know and to (2) be known are two principal desires intrinsic to humanity. After all, God is relational, and in his relationality, he made man and women both for Himself and for one another. These principles are not merely ways of existing passively, but ways of living into an intended purpose within an intentional community. As the fellows continue to journey through life together for the remaining months, it is my prayer that we remain steadfast in seeking to know God, and to recognize that we are known by him. At the same time, I hope we continue to open ourselves to knowing and being known by the communities we find ourselves in.
From sharing our Monday night dinners, to spending afternoons on the pickleball court or exploring the D.C. area, to recounting the mundane and ordinary events of our internship days, the fellows have an opportunity to start well, together.