“The Image of God”
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SCRIPTURE
And God created the human in God’s image, in the image of God they were created, male and female God created them. —Genesis 1:27
DEVOTIONAL
The Hebrew word for, “image” was never to be translated as a physical appearance – but more like “likeness” or reason or character of God. It’s this idea, shared by many cultures, that all of humanity has something of the Divine in them – a spark, a light. The Hindus call it Atman. Thomas Merton called it the “true self.” Quakers call it the inner light, or “that of God” in every person. The humanist tradition calls it identity and integrity. To all of them, it is not something you can see. It’s only something you encounter. That is the tricky part. However, Barbara Brown Taylor suggests a spiritual practice that might help:
A good way to warm up is to focus on one of the human beings who usually sneak right past you because they are performing some mundane service such as taking your order or handing you change. The next time you go to the grocery store, try engaging the cashier. You do not have to invite her home for lunch or anything but take a look at her face while she is trying to find “arugula” on her laminated list of produce.
Here is someone who exists even when she is not ringing up your groceries, as hard as that may be for you to imagine. She is someone’s daughter, maybe someone’s mother as well. She has a home she returns to when she hangs up her apron here, a kitchen that smells of last night’s supper, a bed where she occasionally lies awake at night wrestling with her own demons and angels. Do not go too far with this or you will risk turning her into a character in your novel, which is a large part of her problem already. It is enough to acknowledge her when she hands you your change…All that is required of you is to look back. Sometimes that is all another person needs to know that she has been seen – not the cashier but the person – but even if she does not seem to notice, the encounter has occurred. You noticed, and because you did, neither of you will ever be quite the same again. 1
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- Try this today. When you do, pay attention to how this changes your relationship with the one you encounter.
- How does this encounter change your understanding of yourself? Of God?
- As you continue this practice of looking for the image of God in other people, how might it change how you read the news, hear stories of people whom you may never meet?
PRAYER
Lord who comes to us through the other, open our eyes to see your image, loving, caring, compassionate and beautiful. Open our hearts to feel that presence transforming us (little by little) from a collection of individuals to your Beloved Community. Amen.
1 Brown Taylor, Barbara. An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith (HarperCollins: New York) 2009, 94-5.
The daily devotionals for the season of Lent are written by Rev. Dr. Kirk Hall, Associate Pastor of Formation at First Presbyterian Church from 2010-2013. He is currently a founding partner at The Metis Project, LLC. and lives with his wife and two girls in Salisbury, Connecticut.