I have been listening to the pray-as-you-go podcast. On Tuesday the reading was the sixth day from the creation story in Genesis where ‘man’ (does this mean each person or humanity en masse?) is created in the ‘image and likeness of God.’ It is a shocking thought.
When pushing through the clot of humanity on an underground station or on the street, or cycling in rush hour just trying to stay upright and alive, it is difficult even to remember, let alone embody, that each of these people is an image and likeness of God. It is even more shocking to think that I am, too.
It is shocking to consider that an alien from another universe could look at us, blighted creatures, and see anything to do with God. In what way we can be considered an image and likeness of God?
But if it is true of one little splot of creation, then there is nothing and nowhere of which it is not true. Each animal, each tree, each blade of grass, each pebble, each exploding star is also an image and a likeness of the unseen God. For there is nothing that is separate from God. If one thing is made in God’s image then everything is. And to look at anything in the right way, with a loving gaze, as a thou, is to see the Maker.