Wednesday, February 20, 2008

What Humans Look Like

Judaic and Christian traditions hold that human beings are created in God’s likeness—His image. Sometimes people only consider the physical aspect. In other words, people assume that God must look like us if we are created in His image.

However, I challenge you today to think of God’s image, and therefore our image, on a different plane. Genesis 1:27 reminds us of that, “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.”

Humans have the ability to reason, use their will and act physically on that will. In St. Thomas’s Summa Theologiae, the author expresses his view of man and the Trinity by saying, “That man is made in the image of God’s nature implies that all three persons of God are represented in him.”

This is how we are unique. We have a Trinitarian reflection. In each of us, we have the ability to reflect the qualities of God including love, patience, kindness, mercy and compassion. Corinthians 13:4-7 says it best. “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Sometimes we need to remember that if love has all these capabilities and we have the potential for all these capabilities, then since we are made in God’s image, these capabilities came from Him. How often do you remember that God loves you?

God is complex. We are complex. As is it for all of us, Loretta Oakes is a combination of body, mind and spirit. The physical aspect of me does not define me alone, nor does my mind define me, nor solely my spirit. However, the combination of the three, make a whole person and that is who Loretta Oakes is.

If we are made in God’s image, then God Himself must also be complex. It begs the reader to consider not putting God in a box.

See you next week.

2 comments:

Robbie Iobst said...

WOW! Are you saying that we are trinitarian in nature as body, mind and spirit are three? You deep, girl! But I love it and I love that you keep God outta the box! Reading your blog reminds me how Ginormous God is!!

Loretta Oakes said...

I'm saying that we are Trinitarian in body, mind and spirit...and MORE! If you read Thomas Aquinas' quote, he is saying that all three Persons of the Trinity are present in us. I think that maybe God gave humanity many symbols of the Trinity. What about water? We talked about water in previous blogs. What about DNA? Is God present there? So much to think about.
Thanks!