People

This is a cross-post. I originally posted it on Maurice's message board, but thought it was interesting enough to share here as well. To see the original message board thread and mine and others' follow-up comments, click here.

This is about people. We're told that we're all made in the image of God, right? But how can that be? We all look different, act different, think different, etc. Well, my thought is that maybe we all have qualities and characteristics of God. God is... God. So I mean, there's practically infinite different parts of him. I think maybe we're all like him in some different way.

So, wouldn't it make sense then, that if you take every different person that's ever been made or will be made and put them all together somehow, you'd have a complete image of God? I think that would also make sense given the fact that God loves all of us so much and wants to be with us. Why wouldn't he, if we're all kind of like some "part" of him?

Then we come into play. As Christians, we're always saying how we want to "know God more" and learn more about him. And we try to find ways to do that through prayer, Bible reading, worship, etc. Which are all good, definitely, and can help us know him more. I don't know about all of you, but I've sometimes gotten frustrated because I do want to know God more and it sometimes seems hard because he isn't physically visible right here in front of me to talk to and be with. Sure, he's spiritually here and I can talk to him through prayer, but you know what I mean. But while he himself isn't physically here, he has given us a physical IMAGE of himself, if you look at this the way I do. Look around you at all the people. If you really want to know God more, get to know the people he created in his image.

And if you look at it this way, I think it gives you a reason to try to get to know all the people that you have the opportunity to. Each one of them is like God in some way, so if you do get know them, you're getting to know some new "piece" of God. And actually, the "piece" of God that they are is unlike any other piece out there. So if you don't make an effort to know them... well then, you're kind of missing out on knowing more of God, a piece of him that you wouldn't be able to find anywhere else.

I don't know... to me this just goes to show how valuable each of us really are.