Dear devotional buddy,
When you look into the mirror, what do you see?
I'm guessing that when you see your reflection, you aren't thinking, "Look, there's someone created in God’s image and likeness." And yet, being created in God’s image and likeness is at the very foundation of your being.
That’s what Scripture tells us in Genesis about the first people: they were holy and sacred, created out of the sheer love and goodness of God, and given a specific plan for their existence that reflects God’s royal purpose. Each human being is an image-bearer of God's likeness.
This theme carries throughout the whole Bible. When Jesus walked the earth, He consistently conferred dignity on people when his culture said they had none. Consider his many healings, his touches, his love of children. To Jesus, each one had dignity. And by His interaction with them He called them to sanctity.
But what does this mean for us today?
Well, we are called to turn the hearts of those consumed by the world to follow Jesus - and to recognize that all human beings bear God's image and deserve protection. I admit that strongly standing for life is hard, especially in a world where destroying life seemingly at will is considered normal and popularly promoted. But standing for life is heroic.
Choosing to defend the defenseless requires a heroism that doesn’t often exist in our culture today. Challenging our neighbors, friends and family members who think that abortion (and other offenses against the dignity of life) is permissible most definitely brings discomfort, but also truth and conviction.
After all, if the very people God adopted as his sons and daughters are unable to recognize in every human life a reflection of God’s image and likeness, then who else possibly will do it?
And think of the rewards! The small, the weak, the aged, the ill, the poor, the strong, the powerful, the vulnerable – you, me, the young women and men who walk through the doors of the Pregnancy Clinic – each of these lives gives us an opportunity to encounter God. When we allow those lives to be eliminated, we lose the chance to experience God’s presence in that unique and unrepeatable way.
The tangible reflection of God’s image and likeness exists in every human being. It is our privilege and honor to help people see God by helping them see Him in one another.