Image of God

Tuesday: God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth." We don’t quite get the image part and we really don’t get the responsible part. Being made in the image of God does not mean that we “look” like God or that God “looks” like us. If that were the case then the next question would be which one of “us” does God look like? Is God handsome like me, or ugly like my enemies? You can see where this sort of questioning can lead, and it isn’t pretty. We are made in the image of God in that we can love, we can care, we can give and we can nurture. Being responsible for the rest of the creation we still have a little trouble with. Were the Germans and Japanese we bombed during WWII created in the image of God? Are the Jews who were so brutally destroyed in the camps created in the image of God? Are the Iraqis we bombed in shock and awe created in the image of God? The answer of course is yes. Perhaps some day the people of the earth will grow up enough to recognize that and find some other way to solve conflicts. The solution is not easy and never about pointing fingers.