The Image of God

If man, the image bearer, was created to glorify God (that is accurately reflect Him), then it must be noted that every human we have ever encountered in a very real sense represented to us the face of God.

In this sense if ever we experienced wounding and sin from our fellow man it was in fact the image of God that was marred. Those to whom it was granted to display the glory of God mislead us as to the nature of the One whose image they bore.

When one person sins against another, through omission or commission, they are showing God to be corrupt. The wounds inflicted by sin teach us that what we desired most from others; love...the surest reflection of God, is foolish, dangerous, false, unobtainable, and shameful.

If anyone has harmed us it is our longing for God, our hope for a taste of His Spirit, that has been most assaulted. We come to distrust our longing for Him and flee from the vulnerability that is required to both seek out and receive such tenderness and mercy. We learn to hate our neediness and the desire that points to Him.

To reconcile our hearts to those who have wounded us, to embrace forgiveness, is not simply to reconcile with those who have sinned against us, but it is also to reconcile our wounded hearts to God. It is to resurrect those long hidden desires that always pointed toward Him, and in so doing resurrect the fallen image of God in our lives. It is to give back to God our deepest most vulnerable desires and afford Him all the hope, trust, and love He so richly deserves.

"How long, O you sons of men, Will you turn my glory to shame?" Psalms 4:2

"When they set their threshold by My threshold, and their doorpost by My doorpost, with a wall between them and Me, they defiled My holy name by the abominations which they committed..." - Ezek 43:8

"All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." - John 10:8-10