Reflected Glory

Most of us are pleased to accept the Biblical assertion that we have been created in the “Image of God.” It goes down easier than many other familiar phrases-like “love your enemies” or “sell everything and give it to the poor.” But this very popular Biblical phrase-“Image of God”-is very much misunderstood. Many people, when they think about being made in God’s image, create a picture in their mind’s eye of their having been made somehow to look like God: little copies of God; little models of God. The dictionary tells us that a “model” is a miniature copy of the real thing. We are not copies of the “Real Thing.” Whatever else the Biblical writers are trying to tell us they are not trying to tell us that we are little gods or that we are copies of God. God is God. God is the Creator. We are finite beings, dependent on God for every breath we draw, for every moment of life. We…