Capturing the Image
This is a pretty popular image of God, perhaps what we have been taught to imagine he looks like. It’s impossible to definitively tie down the physical attributes, but I want to turn the image of God round.
When our eldest son was born, the doctor said to me, “You’ll never be able to leave him anywhere, he looks so like you, he is your image”. The family likeness was indisputable and obvious.
I would love to be able to paint. But I can’t, I’ve tried. Whatever I try and recreate looks nothing like what to is meant to be. There is no recognisable likeness.
In your wisdom and goodness you have made all people in your image and likeness
(from the Lent Communion Service in Methodist Worship)
We are made in God’s image. I am made in God’s image. Yet would anyone know? Am I recognisable as such?
a physical likeness or representation of a person, animal, or thing,photographed, painted, sculptured, or otherwise made visible
Is God’s image visible in me?
Would anyone look at me, and say, “I know who you look like, whose mannerisms you have”? Would they say, “You have captured the likeness perfectly”. Would they look at me and see God? Or have I marred the image, by me, my actions and reactions?
Which brings us to today’s reading
19 You surely know that your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit lives. The Spirit is in you and is a gift from God. You are no longer your own. 20 God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honor God. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (CEV)
Lord,
as I look at my life,
and think of you,
what is to be seen?
Am I your image?
A spitting image,
pointing
and illustrating you?
Or am I blurry,
unrecognisable even?
My call in life
is to show You,
your love,
your traits,
your life
in me.
Yet,
I have failed.
It is not so.
I get in the way.
Too much of me
and not enough of you.
And so I come,
seeking forgiveness,
mercy
and love:
longing to be more like you.
If lent is to mean anything,
may I spend time with you,
allowing you to reach me,
to heal me;
allowing myself to
be more like you
and less like me.
Rescue me Lord
and may I allow myself to be so.
Pam's Perambulation 