Imago Dei
*Between this week’s podcast conversation about cultural differences with Kerri-Lynne Knappett, and the events unfolding in the Middle East, I started thinking about our differences. This is what came from that….
This world is full of different people, isn’t it?
Different beliefs and values.
Religious, non-religious.
They don’t vote like you.
They support causes that make your stomach turn.
They do unholy things to their body.
Promote unholy things too.
They chase the world.
Lose their soul.
Their actions are hard to understand.
And man, they’re hard to love.
I see it online and in places I walk too – the anger at people who don’t believe or live or act like you. The indignation.
THEY’RE WRONG.
THEY’RE LIVING IN SIN!
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY’VE DONE?!
(I can literally hear some of you shaking your fists & yelling at me) 😉
In my mind’s eye, I see Jesus squatting down, fingers tracing the dirt quietly. Sorta like he did that time they were going to stone the adulterous woman…
Yes they need Jesus. And yep. They very well may be wrong, living in sin – and only heaven knows what they’ve done.
But that was you once. Me too.
Before we started following Jesus.
Before we let him clean us up and change us from the inside out.
I don’t know what you were like before you met Jesus, but I was pretty dirty.
Man it felt good when he washed me clean.
Do you remember that day?
The feeling! The freedom! The weight of the sin gone!
THAT’S JUST IT! (You’re yelling again) 😉
You want everyone to know Him.
Hey, I get it. I want that too.
But if you want someone to see Jesus, they gotta see it in you first.
In the First Chapter of the First Book, God says, “Let’s make THEM in my image.”
The fancy word for it is Imago Dei (image of God)
God made us. In His image.
Which means…We are Image Bearers.
Imago Dei.
Which, my friends, means we’ve got a job.
Be an Image Bearer.
To the unholy and unclean. Be an Image Bearer.
As the world gets darker. Be an Image Bearer.
Feed them. Help them. Forgive them. Hug them.
And for heaven’s sake, love them.
Let them see the Imago Dei in you.
But more importantly,
Help them see the Imago Dei inside themselves.
Even if we don’t live the same, even if we don’t vote the same.
Even if we don’t go to the same church – or no church at all.
Even if our entire worlds are opposite.
Be An Image Bearer.
Imago Dei.
Over on the podcast this week, I shared some time with my Canadian friend, Kerri-Lynne Knappett. We talk about our differences…and even though we’re different, we still a lot alike. If you need a smile today, check it out here.
