(Restoring the Image of God)

By D.Thomas

“No one has ever seen God. It is God The Only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made Him known,” [JOHN 1:18].

Today is January 6, 2025. Four years ago on this day, armed supporters of Donald trump stormed the Capitol Building to interrupt the ratification of votes, an essential part of the peaceful transition of power, which has been a stand-out feature of American government from its beginning. To the horror and despair of many U.S. citizens, and much of the rest of the world, that same trump will be taking office again, later this month. To many, this is a sign of deep darkness.

We are in the depths of winter, in the northern hemisphere, have short days and long nights. November was, for me, a very dark month, and much of December, sad. But, there was the Solstice, when days begin to lengthen incrementally, and there has been Christmas.

The depression and grief has been real, but the darkness shall not steal joy.

The songs and scriptures and family fellowship kindled my small flame, blew up my light enough that I am not feeling despair now–the Dark will not win. I helped make music of praise and rejoicing, and I believe, that:

Humans who care about fellow beings and habitats will continue to fight evil, through courts, through feeding and taking water and clothing and medicine to those in need, through building shelters, as did our former President, Jimmy Carter who, sadly, passed away last week.

Some of the helping, light-bearing people will call themselves followers of and believers in Christ, and some will not, and I don’t think that matters; I use the Judeo-Christian Bible because I do believe in Christ, and because it tells of good news for all– all who believe, also all who are in need of God, also all who love, also all creation.

“For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and His glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn,“[ISAIAH 60:].

Today is the Twelfth Day of Christmas, Epiphany, which is when the Christian church celebrates the arrival of the Wise Men or Magi, who followed the star to see the newborn king. The Magi were astronomers, astrologers?, philosophers, alchemists, priests, visionaries, prophets?– we do not know– from “the East.” They were not Jewish. They were Gentiles who believed the sky signs of divinity and kingship, and were prepared to travel to pay homage, to honor the Savior King being born to the Jews and the world.

King Herod, the text of Matthew tells us, heard of the star and the birth of the new King from these foreigner. Hearing of the Messiah’s birth in Bethlehem, Herod, the Puppet who paid tribute to Caesar, feared, and all Jerusalem with him” [MATT 2:3]: reaction from Rome if the King had come, but also, one supposes, they feared the need of repentance, of turning over whatever they had established for themselves in their small, proud provincial nation.

The priests and Pharisees and high officials had not seen or heard, but learned about this child from the Gentiles who came to worship.

The frightened men in the capitol were the wealthy rulers of the Temple and the Law; they were worldly and rich by local standards. The Messiah was born poor, and poor shepherds were visited by Angels and directed to the baby swaddled like a flawless lamb would be who was to be raised, carefully, to be a sin sacrifice; and those shepherds came away rejoicing and telling everyone about what they had seen and heard, the “Good news of great joy to all people” in Luke 2. Even in the Hebrew scriptures, God was never for the Jews only, but for all peoples.

“But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time He brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the later time He will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in the land of deep darkness–on them light has shined,” [ISAIAH 9: 1-2].

Herod, who was evil and had a city’s youngest children slaughtered, did not defeat the light, then, nor did Rome whose executions made martyrs, later, did not overcome the young community or “cult” of followers of this Jesus of Nazareth, who was born in a stable in Bethlehem, laid by his mother in a manger.

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“Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you…they shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise the LORD,” [ISAIAH 60:5-6].

“In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet’…when they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy,” [MATTHEW 2: 1-5, 9-10].

The star was an outward, physical sign of the light being born into the world. The light was not new in the world, only as the human being was it new. The light was the first creation, made by and from and in and of God Creator. If you do not believe, read the prophets and gospels as fascinating literature, mythologies and stories with lessons for us, often in the details that have come forward through the generations, through spoken words until written down, the copied and translated; see the types and archetypes, and this collection of writings which makes a book of knowledge (through experience and choices) of good and evil.

While the authorship of the Gospels and Prophets and the Pentateuch are oft questioned, the Epistles seem as trustworthy as any antique letters or journals we study; John son of Zebedee and Simon called Peter probably really wrote to believers; letters were not uncommon, copies of letters were made and circulated among a literary people. I realize that it still requires a leap of faith, but John begins his “first” letter:

“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— this life was revealed and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us,” [ 1 JOHN 1:1-2];

And Peter wrote or dictated,

“For we do not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses to His majesty. For He received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Beloved, with Whom I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns, and the morning star rises in your hearts,” [ 2 Peter 1: 16-19].

They might be deluded– but they might not.

Jesus was born to reconcile living beings with that Being Which Causes Life.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in Him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in darkness and the darkness did not overcome it,” [JOHN 1:1-5].

What came into being was life: each life, life on earth, Jesus’ life, being.

“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness,” [GENESIS 1: 1-4].

“Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness….So God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. God blessed them,” [GEN. 1: 26-28a].

Jesus was born human to show and tell us that humans were created in the image of God, creative living creatures with imaginations, intellect, with self-awareness and awareness of others, and abilities to analyze and abstract, to theorize and to make, to love, to make poetry and art and music, and to sing.

Becoming children of God is to restore the image of God in humans– to rekindle the fire, to relight the lamp, to cleanse away the dirt and soot and dead ash (of death, depression, despair, and sin) and blow up the flame of our Light.

God was born into this world, planet Earth, as the human Jesus to reveal light and truth: to know God, to know life, we must be born “of water”— physical, biological beings, formed in fluids, born in floods, evolved from primeval waters, born –and “born,” also, in spirit– Spirit which blew upon the waters, breathed into humanity, gives breath and life and is also God.

God is the substance, Only Son, and the energy, Spirit and mighty wind and breath: the being of things and the life of beings.

Do we abide in Peace and Love and Joy immediately and forever after? No, for we are still in these changing bodies, in time, in flux, in physical uncertainty (according to quantum physics). Sometimes we feel only cold, sense only the dread and darkness; Jesus did not eliminate experiencing, suffering, life.

God separated the light and darkness in verse Genesis 1:4, and in 1:5 called them Day and Night, and then there was morning and evening: as soon as being was, photons and electrons, atoms and molecules, time was: there was motion and change, and cycles: life is cyclical, in circling galaxies, orbiting and rotating planets, in seasons of the year, and their seasons of life for all living beings on the planet.

“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him; yet the world did not know Him. He came to what was His own, and His own people did not accept Him,” [JOHN 1: 9-10].

When the Serpent tempted the humans in the Genesis 2 story, he tells them that “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” But they were already in God’s image. Eating at the urging of the Serpent, eating prematurely, their eyes were opened, but only partly, only in a very earthly, small way:

“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves,” [Gen. 2:7]

Then they were ashamed to be naked before God their Creator who made them, in God’s image. They were still blind.

No deceivers or liars bring truth or true light.

But, the promise the true light brings is, this:

“But all who received him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And this Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory…full of grace and truth,” [JOHN 1: 13-14].

God the Son came to restore us to God, to restore the light of God within us each. This is the Good News, the cause for rejoicing, for the death of the time-dwelling, time-worn, temporary body does not end the light, the energy; does not obliterate the atoms, but liberates the spirit within to be with Spirit– I don’t know what or how, none of us does, or knows exactly what this means. We don’t know the how or when or why of what we call the Big Bang, either, We barely grasp particles and waves and fields.”

The Good News of Jesus Christ is this:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son, so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him,” [JOHN 3: 16-17];

“Those who believe are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God,”

The Scripture continues; it does not say that those who just can’t quite accept the too-simple, too-good, two- thousand- year- old story are condemned forever, for

“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them,” [ 1JOHN16b ].

We retain our freedom to choose:

“And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light” [JOHN 3:19-21].

Seeing the light may be: seeing the light which is the life of one’s self, and of every living being, and the being of every molecule and atom, particle and wave, waves of song, waves of love and rejoicing, waves with peaks and troughs and cycles of morning and evening, the times of Day on earth, and the Nights,

“but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,” [1 JOHN 1:7].

God– what we call “God” in our shorthand, but is incredibly greater and more than human words can say, more vast than can be contained in any book, but which is as close as our breath– is the provider of all the substance of living things, of all molecules and atoms thrown out by accelerating energies, cooled into star stuff– we and everything on our planet are made of star stuff, just like that in the star which led the wise men to Bethlehem.

“…Consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For all creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God…in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now,” [ROMANS 8: 18-22].

Through Christ, born as a human to reveal God and renew us, we have the Image of God in us restored, opening our eyes to God or Light in us and in everything that is, which is made in Them– and this can change everything.

“Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you,” [ISAIAH 60:1].

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you,” [ISAIAH 60:1].