Image Bearers

This year I am looking at my daily meditations through the frame that we are all made in the image of God. This morning I am meditating on Ruth 1:16.

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. "

These powerful and beloved words don't lead to easy lives for these women. They struggle. They face hardship. But they persevere together. Ruth did not believe in Naomi's God at the beginning of her story, but she was still made in his image. And she still, even without realizing it, was doing his work as she followed Naomi to a new place. God works in the lives of those who do not know him, even before they know him, so powerful is his plan for all of our lives. And in the end, God rewards them, according to his purpose.

It is easy to get caught up in the things of the world, to believe that we are important, to think that our story is more pressing than someone else's. We are impatient. We want what we want, and we want it now, without regard for the person on the other side of the counter or desk or transaction. We want to think we are, somehow, more worthy.

I think there is no better time than the present to recall that we are all, each one of us, made in the image of God. Every single person bears his imprint. We all have his unique stamp. When I look at my children, I see nothing of myself in their faces. And yet, they are fully my children, born of my body, and raised by me. So too, each human being ever born is fully God's child, born of his spirit, and part of his family. Whether they look like me or worship or work or live like me, they are my brother or sister in Christ, and a part of my spiritual family, and God wants me to love them as he loves me. The directive is clear, all the way to the cross.

God chooses you every moment of every day. He doesn't choose a denomination or a church building or a congregation or a synod or an organization. He is not evangelical or free Lutheran or Catholic or Protestant or Southern Baptist or any other human designated artificial label. Jesus wouldn't recognize the label Christian, even, because he taught The Way (See John 14:2 and the Book of Acts.) No, God chooses his people. Every single one. Including you.

All you need to do is choose God back, and love one another as he loves us. Not transactionally. Not conditionally. Not so long as.you tick the "right" boxes. Just purely and simply.

Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay. We are one people. We are at one with God.