The Divine Image

Yesterday afternoon I’d just sat down to write an email when a co-worker of mine knocked on my door with a question that had come up during a recent bible study with her church community. We found ourselves in a conversation about what it means to be created in the Divine Image. We lingered on the topic for a little while, thinking about what it meant to each of us, introducing ideas from our different, yet similar, faith traditions. All the while the email sat unwritten. One idea we both liked was that being created in the Divine Image attunes us to the creative power within us as well as our inclination toward goodness, compassion, and truth. Another idea we both liked is that any facet of our personality or experience might be a reflection of the Divine Image within. Our laughter, our tears, our resilience, our talent, our fear, our poetry, our music, our nurturing, our doubt, our wisdom, our wonder. We agreed that life would be quite interesting if we paused to consider how, in encountering others, we are inevitably encountering the Divine Image within them and therefore within ourselves. And eventually, since I know it’s a cliffhanger, the email was written and sent. But I’m still waiting for a reply.