Time for my annual reminder: you are created in the image of God. Yes, you. We are all children of God. Yes you, and that person you don’t like, too. All of us, no exceptions.
(Now that I think about it, this might be a bi-annual, maybe even a weekly reminder. A necessary one, though.)
God language is what I’m using, but you know I mean “whatever faith tradition, however you know God” or whatever language you want to use, right? God is love, the spirit of life, the living energy that is in all things, the power of creation and the heart of good, the thing that connects us all. We all come from God (however you understand that) and we all return to God (however you understand that).
Just because we don’t all use the same lingo, language or systems doesn’t mean we aren’t one family, one community, one people.
And people are extraordinary, capable of great things, even amazing things. We're capable of great creativity, love, compassion, grace - all the things that remind us that we are created "in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27).
We're also capable of other things, the less desirable things, the things that are the opposite of those things we think of as "good." We can destroy and hurt and hate. We can be selfish, mean and abusive. We have a very diverse skill set.
I believe - and I know this is going to be trouble, so please just take a moment to think about it - that we are inherently good. For a very long time, we’ve learned about Original Sin and how we’re all inherently sinful, but I don’t see how that’s possible. In our stories, we’re created from the earth and by the spirit of God. Throughout the creation story, God says everything created is “good,” and God, surely, is good, so how can we not be inherently good? It’s our factory setting. Even if you don’t believe in what’s true in the story, surely the moment of creation is good. It’s the living and life experiences and choices that follow that affirm our good or denies it.
I also believe that, in the story, Eve and Adam simply made a choice. They acquired free will, thanks to a decision that followed a conversation with a crafty and clever serpent (who wasn’t evil, by the way) and made a choice. What if that was the plan all along? What if they weren’t cast out of the Garden of Eden for their sin, but instead became aware of their abilities - especially the power of learning - and found themselves aware of being co-creators, co-stewards of creation, rather than just residents in it? What if it wasn’t supposed to be a punishment, but a gift, and they didn’t leave “Eden” at all. What if it’s been this wonder of creation, this world in which we live, all along? What if they found themselves aware of their earthly-ness and the divine spirit within them and knew they were created in the image of God and could now live into that?
What if they then lost their way?
Jesus, and figures like Jesus - prophets, leaders and wise, spirit-filled people - have showed us what we’re capable of. They weren’t any more perfect than we are, or any less affected by the challenges of life we know. The point isn’t to hold them up and set them apart as something unusual and miraculous, but to learn from them that we are what they are, created in the image of God and capable of every love-filled, grace-filled, compassion-filled, empathy-filled moment we can imagine.
What’s in your way?
