Here’s a thought I had the other day:

If we can’t see the Imago Dei in others, it says more about how we can’t see it in ourselves than it says about the other person/group.

If we can’t see the Image of God is others, then it probably means we are having trouble seeing that image in ourselves.

Our vision is skewed. We are somehow blinded to seeing the Image of God within ourselves. And when we can’t see it, or won’t see it, in ourselves, then we won’t see it in others. We won’t see the holiness within someone else. We won’t see similarities in others. We won’t see the fuller picture of creation in others. We won’t see how God expresses Godself in other parts of creation.

We won’t see God at all, in fact. We will see a threat. We will see an other. We will see not us. We will see them.

And when others become “them,” we also are admitting how fragile we are – not how tough we are. When we see a them, we are admitting how weak we are. We are admitting how broken we are. We are admitting how blind we are. We are admitting how closed off our minds and hearts have become.

Criticism of others, hatred of others, fear of others – most of the time all these things really are is a mirror that we are holding up. These things expose more about ourselves than about anyone else.