Those who know me well know that I don’t have the greatest memory. I forgot where I put my phone/wallet/keys, names of people I definitely should know, and even things that I said just last week.
So when I remember something vividly, it’s usually for a good reason. Especially if that thing I remember is rather random.
Travel back with me to Blue Lake Methodist Camp in Andalusia, Alabama. Blue Lake is a special place to me (as I’ve written about before). It’s mid-summer, probably 2008 or so. I’m sitting in a wooden classroom building at my summer youth camp. I can’t remember the topic; I can’t remember the speaker; but I can remember what I was doing.
We were invited to draw something related to Scripture. I don’t know if it was a “find a favorite Bible verse and draw it” activity, but it was something like that.
I’m no artist but I’ve always enjoyed art. The few times I’ve sat down to draw, I find it very peaceful and a way for me to connect to God. On that afternoon, I drew a mirror and wrote inside the mirror “Genesis 1:27”.
For the curious among us, here’s what Genesis 1:27 says:
“So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.”
I don’t know exactly what I was dealing with at the time, but I remember this verse changing my life. I don’t say that flippantly. This verse profoundly changed the way I see myself, God, and the people around me.
When God created the world, as recorded in Genesis 1, He created all things but did so with the skill of an artist: each thing different, yet connected.
When He created humans, He designed us with many attributes of other animals—bones and hair and mouths, just to name a few commonalities—but gave us something no other animal had: His very image.
The God of the Universe, so immensely great in all He is, gave humans—those He created from the dust of the earth, so frail and fickle, with so many things to tempt us to go awry—His very image. Let that sink in. Adam and Eve bore the image of their Creator. They bore the image of God.
And so do I. And so do you.
Sin has marred that image, often in very nasty ways. But that image is still there. In fact, God’s desire for our lives is for us to return to the Garden (except in a more beautiful, redeemed way). God’s desire for our lives is for us to be with Him again and like Him again.
Now, this isn’t possible without Him. Only God Himself can reconcile humanity to Himself (and He did that through the person and work of Jesus). And only God Himself can restore His image in humanity (and He does that through the person and work of the Holy Spirit). In the Methodist world, we call these works justification and sanctification.
But every human being on the face of this planet bears the image of God. That is still intrinsic to what it means to be human.
In middle school, like most middle schoolers, I struggled with a lot. I struggled with body image and wanting girls to like me. I struggled with untamed temptations and wanting to be the person I knew God designed me to be. I struggled with wondering if I had any place and purpose in this world.
Which is why Genesis 1:27 spoke so profoundly to me. In the truth of God’s Word, I learned that—if for no other reason—I am valuable, worthy, treasured simply because I bear the image of God.
Wow.
What a revelation that was for me. What freedom that was for me.
I could no longer truthfully tell myself that I was ugly or trash or worthless. I could no longer truthfully call myself names or minimize my importance. Because to do that to myself would be to do that to one who bears the image of God.
As I got older, I began to realize that this had implications beyond just what God says about me. It has great implications for what God says about every person.
Every person, bar none, bears the image of God. Which means that how I treat them is how I treat an image-bearer of God.
You can see why this understanding would change my perspective on God, myself, and the world.
Unfortunately, I haven’t always lived as if Genesis 1:27 were true. I have ignored people who I should have spoken to, ignoring an image-bearer of God Himself. I have called people names behind and in front of their backs, names I would never call God… but apparently call one made in His image. I have immediately judged someone as “less than” because of their outward appearance, forgetting that inwardly, they bear the likeness of my Father.
By God’s sanctifying grace, those instances are becoming fewer and farther in between, and with less intense words when they do happen.
But I have had to confess to God and others—and I confess to you now—that I haven’t always seen or treated every other person as one who bears the image of God.
Father, forgive me for the ways I haven’t seen Your image in my fellow person.
This weekend, after seeing many responses (many of them wise, thought-provoking, and gospel-centered) to President Trump’s sharing of a video depicting many politicians as animals (animals who don’t bear the image of God), including President and Former First Lady Obama as animals with historically racist overtones, I not only thought about what was wrong about that and what was wrong about defenses of that, but I tried to think about why that was wrong.
I have no interest in making political statements. I have no interest in divisive rhetoric. I have no interest in dunking on a public figure when half the country is dunking on them and the other half is defending them. But as a pastor, I do have interest in speaking to a spiritual issue that is not only embodied by President Trump, but many others, including myself.
There are many reasons that video and its sharing were wrong but I want to focus on the one that’s most obvious to me: because it dehumanizes someone and, in doing so, tries to take away the most important thing that separates humans from animals, the image of God.
Whenever we try to take away or minimize someone’s humanity, whether through race-induced slurs, body-related names, or minimizing life in the womb, we try to take away the most important thing about us: God’s image in us.
Note that I’m not saying that we take away God’s image in us. We are not that powerful that we can strip away the image of God in another person. But we can treat others in a way that we don’t acknowledge that they are mage in the image of God. And when we do, it grieves the heart of God.
May we choose a different way. May we choose to be careful with our words and our actions so as to recognize the image of God in another person, even those we most disagree with. And may we give to God those deep, hidden parts of us that desire to dehumanize so that, by His grace, we can live like God: the One who always sees His image inside of us.
If you’re new to my blog, welcome! I’m glad you’re here. I’m Hunter Bethea, a follower of Jesus, husband, father, Global Methodist pastor, and curator of books I don’t have time to read. You’re welcome to learn more about me here.
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