Made in the Image and Likeness

Welcome to my 3 part blog on looking deeper at some of the values I hold. This came out of a paper I wrote for a class I am currently taking at St Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry. Hope you find it inspiring and fulfilling. I thought it was great time since we are currently in Lent. 

All my life people have reminded me that I am "made in the image of God." It's a nice thought, and probably one that at times I used to try to remind myself of my own value as a human being. However at times it has been one that I have had a hard time accepting. In reality, "Made in the image of God" is an audacious claim and carries some responsibility with it. We all know we are not gods, and at times I can think that I felt very far from being even close to this claim. However while it is true that I am not God throughout my life I have come to see how I am godlike.

It very hard for us to ignore that fact that we are like God, when you look at Genesis it talks about how God created man and women in his image and likeness (126-27). So in many ways in being human we are meant to fully reflect God through everything we are and do, from our intelligence to the relationships. While this is a powerful statement it’s is one that I have had a hard time fully allowing myself to believe through my life.

So, what does it mean to be created in God's image to me now? I view it as that we each are almost a snapshot of God. I have found the more I embrace that God loves me and that he created me in his imagine I am more able to following my own path to  fulfillment and what God desires for me. I feel the greatest pleasure and wholeness when who God made me to be is fully developed and expressed.

But in what ways have I come to see how I am made in the image of God? I come back to how I see God in myself that If I could take a snapshot of God, what would we see and what would it reveal about humans created in God's image?

First way I found how I was in the imagine and likeness of God was through dancing. We know that God is creative, he created everything on earth and every one of us. As humans we make things. Artists make things with paint. Poets, writers, philosophers and lawyers make things with ideas and the compelling use of words. Every human has the capacity to make things, to create, because we are all made in the image of a creative God.

 So for me I came to see this through dancing. I danced from the time I was five through my undergraduate degree. I still dance to this day but not at the same level I once did. It was an outlet but also became a place I created. I can remember choreographing the “dream” part of the dance of the gym in West Side Story. In it I moved around the stage making Tony and Maria get closer to each other. It was creative but after a number of people told me how moving it was. Later I was able to choreograph a number of liturgical dances for youth masses that Diocese of Buffalo put on, I began to see how I could use my gift to glorify God but more and more realized that my ability to create was given to me by God.

How I communicate I believe is another way I see how God has created me in his likeness, because God communicates. The human ability to think and reason, to use language, symbols and art, far surpasses the abilities of any animals. This gift was bestowed when the communicative God's image was imprinted on us.

One of the clearest examples of this in my life I can remember is when I was a sophomore in college I worked on a program called Young Christians at Work. The program took place during Holy Week and because I went to a state university I didn’t have time off from classes, but really felt called to working on the program. I worked with my teachers and got all my work done before hand to go and have to really talk my boss at work into letting me go. At the time I was working full time and didn’t have vacation time to use, so I worked two twelve hours days before leaving for the program. I really thought I was just going because I loved and enjoyed the program as a teen and wanted to still help out. However once I started to work at the program I realized I was there for a greater purpose. That year there was a very quiet girl that year who really broke down during an activity and as I tried to calm her down, I realized she recently lost her cousin during the war and felt so alone. I shared with her about losing my brother and how I knew they were still watching out for us and there when we needed them. I was able to connect and communicate with her on a level that helped her start healing. Later that year I received a letter from her thanking me again, something as simple as communicating help someone more through a very difficult situation.

The last way I found that I am made in the image and likeness of God is in my relationships. The phrase, "Let us make man in our image" reveals an "us-ness" in the very nature of God. The very essence of God is relational, and that essential quality has been imprinted on humans. This capacity for a relationship with God extends to humans, which is why the Genesis story declares that God created Eve for Adam because "it is not good for man to be alone." I have come to a deeper understanding of how I am made in the image of God through my relationship with others. Many times they have been the ones to see God in me when I am not able to. During the hardest and darkest parts of my depression and eating disorder, I didn’t see at all how I was made in the image and likeness of God. However is was those I was in relationship with, my friends and family who saw amazing qualities in me that God had been given me, even when I couldn’t. It was through relationship that I was first able to again see God in my life and in myself.