DTEB, “Seeing God’s Face and Fingerprints”

“Today, with God’s constant help, I am seeing God’s face and his fingerprints all over the place, even when I look in the mirror.” (A recent twelve-step affirmation for me.)

The Bible says that we humans are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), both male and female. This means, among other things, that whenever I look into the face of anyone, I am looking into the face of God. The image of God in them may be defaced, but it is not erased. The same is true for me.

Too often, however, when I look at someone’s face, especially my own face, all I see is a human face. That inability and unwillingness to see God’s face in myself others is the result of my own defacement. I am frequently not simply near-sighted. I’m downright blind. What makes my blindness really tragic is that I am willingly blind.

The affirmation that leads off this post invited me to look at myself, others, and all creation differently. How did I do? It was a mixed bag. However, there were times during the day when I succeeded. When I did, the joy and peace and the gratitude where very nearly unbearable. I can only handle so much time spent with strangers. Joy, peace, and gratitude are not close friends of mine. On the other hand, we are getting better acquainted, and I am beginning to desire a deepening of that relationship.

Too often, whether I’m looking in the mirror, all I see are the weaknesses, the wrong choices, the harms I’ve done to others and to myself. To see my face as a reflection of God’s face is not easy.

Nor is it easy to see face in others. All I see is their weaknesses, their wrong choices, their harmful attitudes and behaviors.

Nevertheless, I do have a choice as to how I look at myself and others. It takes courage and hope to change my way of seeing, and I don’t have a lot of either. But there is a God who offers to give me those gifts. God also promises to nourish courage and hope until they flourish. God is a good gardener. God is a God who gives sight to the blind.

I am always struck by the fact that Genesis chapter 2 follows Genesis chapter 1. Yes, I know that sounds strange, but hang with me.

In Genesis 1, we are told that God made humans in God’s image and told them to rule over creation. And then, in chapter 2, it speaks again of the forming of the humans. It turns out that their rulership is expressed in being gardeners! Doesn’t sound like fun? Think again. God designed and planted the garden. And when God created the man and put the man into the garden and made the woman to be his companion, the command was not simply commanding them not to eat the fruit of one of the trees. That one prohibition wasn’t the first command. Rather, they were commanded to eat the fruit of every tree, except for the one. Unfortunately for them—and for us—they decided that the fruit that was the one exception must be exceptional.

But God still wants us with God in God’s garden. God wanted this so much that God became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). Then, the Master Gardener went to a cross to take care of all the ways in which we had defaced God’s image. But there is more: the story tells us that the story doesn’t end there. The Gardener was buried in a tomb in a garden, but in a very short while, in three days, the Gardener burst out of the ground, bringing us image-bearers with him. Now, God gives us another wonderful miracle: God calls us into ourselves and out of ourselves to join God in the garden. The garden is all of us, but we are also co-gardeners with God. As we work the soil and pull out the weeds, the image of God in us all becomes clearer and clearer.