We, Image Bearers

Somehow, in between graduate school, homeschooling, painting cabinets, scheduling photo shoots, and oil pulling, I’ve managed to continue the self-imposed charge to read meaty books during Lent.

Right, we’re still in Lent. How easy it is to forget when the ashes wash off and I have a screenplay and short story due the same week.

I finished City of God in a couple of days. It was a great book to start with since it’s primarily focused around Ash Wednesday and its affect on people outside the walls of the church. Sara Miles is a lovely writer who paints a very clear picture of everyday life in San Fransisco’s Mission District. Some bits were heavier than others, and some bits were quite humorous, but it was a quick read and gave me a deeper understanding of how the tradition of Ash Wednesday is one that physically connects people to God.

Then I started reading Understanding the Four Views on Baptism, which is significantly heavier in church history and denominational tradition. It is an actual study, not a collection of anecdotes, so I’m taking this one slowly. The four views represented are Baptist, Lutheran, Reformed, and Christian Church/Church of Christ, and after each view of baptism is presented, the other three representatives offer a response.

People, we are so stinkin’ divided. The more I read, the more I grieve. I am currently knee-deep in the Lutheran view but have decided to take a break and switch to something lighter for the week. Yesterday, I started Sex God by Rob Bell.

This was one I picked up from McKay’s before I realized how irritating Rob Bell’s writing style is. But, since I’m reading for content, I’ll muscle through.

Yesterday, he made some great points about us – all of us – being “image bearers” and how often we reverse God’s creative process to suit our judgments. I had to share:

In the beginning, God created us “in his image.” So first, God gave us an image to bear. Then God gave us gender: male and female. Then God gave us something to do, to take care of the world and move it forward, taking part in the ongoing creation of the world. Later, people began moving to different places. It takes years and years of human history to get to the place where these people are from here and those people are from there. Different locations, skin colors, languages, and cultures come much later in human history.

What we often do is reverse the creative process that God initiated. We start with all the different cultural backgrounds and skin colors and nationalities, and it’s only when we look past these things that we are able to get to what we have in common – that we are fellow image-bearers with the shared task of caring for God’s creation. We get it all backward. We see the differences first, and only later, maybe, do we see the similarities.

Guilty as charged. I feel so silly when common sense slaps me upside the head, and this is only the beginning of the book.

Of course, it’s infinitely difficult to look at some people, like [insert name of serial killer here] and see the image of God, but I think we grow closer to God by trying. We deepen our own understanding of humanity by making the effort to see the similarities before we see the differences. The payoff is exponentially greater.