Do you see the image of God in others?
I will let you into a little secret, an idea I had a week or so ago, but haven’t had the chance to put into practice yet.
I tend to get into a fair amount (that is, a whole lot) of Social Media conversations and, if I’m honest, arguments. Every now and then it gets a little heated. I get called a lot of stuff and at times I get drawn into writing some harsher words to people.
(And obviously I always think I’m right and the other person is wrong and I imagine vice versa)
Recognise the image of God
There are times we can argue and still respect the person we are arguing with. It is even possible to walk away from someone who has a strongly different opinion than you, but still appreciate them as a person. But sometimes I feel like I am arguing against some really stupid people. Which may be true, but it also may be an opportunity for me to try my new thing.
So the idea I had was that next time I get involved in a conversation with someone where the tendency is for me to respond with something angry or sarcastic, to begin my comment with the phrase: I recognise the image of God in you. I imagine that whatever follows from that will definitely have to be informed and shaped by that declaration.
Creation bearing the image of Creator
This isn’t just an idea I came up with. In the letter that Paul writes to the church of Colossae (which we find in the Bible as the book of Colossians) he says this to them:
To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
‘Christ in you, the hope of glory.’ What a powerful phrase. The hope Paul has for this church, is that when they come face to face with people outside of the church, that those people will be able to glimpse God, or the image of God, and the hope that God brings, in these people.
In the beginning
This is actually not even an idea that Paul came up with. Right at the beginning of the Bible, when the story of creation is being shared, we see these words:
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
(A fun fact is that both of the verses quoted above are from Chapter 1 and verse 27 of the book they are written in)
Clearly this is not suggesting that a person looks like God in physical form. Because there are so many of us and only one of God.
But what it is hinting strongly at, is that within every person, there is something Godlike that has been planted. The essence or heart or behaviour or love of God can be found in us.
The Bible says also that God is love and so maybe that is specifically what these passages are alluding to – that within every person exists the capacity to love in some way like God.
The shifting lens
That very idea is what helps shape my personal feelings towards the death penalty (how can we kill someone containing the image of God?)
It helps me not to give up hope in people and the potential that lives within every single person to be changed or transformed from who they are.
If I can start what might be a conflict filled engagement by recognising the mark of God in that person, I imagine it will at least help me to start with a markedly different attitude and hopefully that will help conversations to end up being more productive and love-filled.