Tuesday of Week 5 – Genesis 1:20-2:4; Mark 7:1-13

We heard: “God created man in the image of Himself, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them”.

What do you see?

Who do you see?

I don’t know about bodily likeness. However, men and women differ, and God had no body. As theologians say, it’s about rationality, about free will and probably also feelings. I know this. And yet as I read that sentence in Genesis, I have the impression I’m wiping a grimy windowpane: maybe I don’t see more, but it’s all clearer. And more colourful.

Me, in the image of God? There’s a lot of mediocrity in me, even badness, as well as some layers of good. And it’s this goodness that most determines my likeness to God. By the way, it turns out that looking within myself and toward others, I can come to know God. Looking for what is good in me and others. And in this see what God is like.

But, no, it’s not about self-aggrandisement. Gee, when I think about God’s forgiveness . . . Since I can manage not to attach importance to small matters, then why should God, who is so much better than I am, after all, let with trifling things bother Him. If I like people despite seeing their weaknesses, why would God not like weak people?

Created in the image and likeness of God . . . This work also tells us who the Creator is.

Lord Jesus, I want to think not for what I was created, but for whom I was created and by whom. Let my lips and heart, the of whole of me, give You glory through reflecting Your image and likeness. Amen.