God's Image before My Image

I wondered where I was going to begin this blog. I wanted the first post to be a springboard for other posts. Mainly because I think I would like this space to be a place where we tackle a narrative of ideas rather than random reflections. So, I think the best place to begin, the most fertile soil we can start with, is the idea of humanity being made in the Image of God.

This is a complicated topic because what do we mean by "being made in the image of God?" Well, this idea is mentioned multiple times in the book of Genesis. The first time we encounter this idea is when God says to the heavenly hosts, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness..." (Gen. 1.26).

When God makes Adam (אָדָם - literally man, mankind, or humanity), scripture says, "When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God" (Gen. 5.1). 

In a rather challenging passage, after the flood, God says to Noah, "Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God, He made man" (Gen.9.6).

All of these passages point to an essential aspect of the human condition - by being made in the image of God, human beings are set apart from other created creatures. The Image of God is within us, part of us. It isn't something that we need to nurture or develop; it is something inherent in the human condition, something carried within all of us by virtue of our humanity. You cannot lose it or give it away; you cannot deny it or renounce it. It is a permanent fixture of our creaturely nature. 

This is one of the reasons why fashioning idols was so repugnant to the Israelites. To fashion an idol was to deny the Image of God in humanity. It was to say, this piece of wood or metal is made in the image of a god. This piece of wood, fashioned by human hands, is more sacred than a human being because it is made in the image of a god. Jews, Christians, and Muslims wholeheartedly reject this idea. Nothing made by human hands or conceived of in a human mind is more sacred and precious than a human being. Anything fashioned by human hands pales in comparison to the majesty and grandeur of God's creation, and we human beings are not only parts of that creation but stewards of it (Gen 1.26), made to oversee and care for God's creation as representatives of God's grace and Will on earth.

When we look at another human being we are meant to see the image of God regardless of how obscured that image has become by humanity's fallen nature. We are all imperfect. We all fall into sin and away from God and each other (Rom. 3.23), and when we do, the window through which the Image of God shines becomes a bit dirtier, a bit more obscured. But, as Christians, we are commanded to see through the muck and scum that obscures the window and imagine the Image of God in the other and in ourselves.

This isn't just hippie-dippy theology. Our humanity depends upon this. It depends upon this because if I see the Image of God in myself then I have to see myself as sacred. Consequently, I cannot help but see others as sacred, because if the Image of God dwells in me by virtue of my humanity, the Image of God dwells in every person regardless of how I feel about them. In this reality, division, hatred, and animosity become impossible. It doesn't mean folks won't irritate me, but it prevents me from othering those I don't agree with...Or demeaning others because they're not in my tribe...Or feeling superior to others because of wealth, influence, or status (none of which I have by the way). You can't do any of that if you imagine the Image of God looking back at you as you look at others. 

If you do...Then you can't wear the mantle of Christian. Full stop.

In his first letter, John the apostle writes, "No one has ever seen God. Yet if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is brought to perfection in us" (1 Jn. 4.12). Yes, God's love is perfected in us, and the only way it can be perfected in us is through us loving one another by seeing the Image of God in one another. But why is this so hard? Because it requires imagination. It requires us to imagine the unimaginable through the act of love of neighbor. God is beyond any concept we can place upon God so the closest way we can experience God is through the other. Not personal revelation. Not isolated prayer. Not through fasting and penance. No, we experience God through a deep and abiding presence with others, loving others as we love God, with all "our heart soul and mind" (Mt. 22.37).

Simple? No. Easy? No. But Christianity was never meant to be simple, clean, or neat. It wasn't a faith that was designed to make you feel better by making you comfortable. Jesus tells us to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him (Lk. 9.23). We take up our cross by taking the hard path, the path that demands us to do what the world chooses not to...To see God in everyone and love everyone because they are reflections of God. 

That's our challenge - to see the Image of God in the other. Not only that but to love the other as they are, not as we hope them to be. That's not to say we don't work to convert the hearts of others so that their lives become more Christ-like but first we must work to convert ourselves to see the Image of God in all those we meet each and every day.