The teacher took her preschool students outside into the afternoon sun one day and introduced them to the concept of shadows. She had them stand with their backs to the sun and look at their shadows.
She pointed out that the shadow outline generally looked just like them. As they moved, it moved with them. She explained that the light being shined upon them from the sun was creating a copy of their forms on the ground.
Even though it resembled them, she showed them that there were a few things missing that one would normally see when looking at the person next to them. She asked them to list what was missing from their shadows.
“My eyes,” one said.
“My mouth,” another proclaimed.
The teacher challenged her students, “now I’ll bet you can’t run away from your shadows!”
Immediately, the kids all started running around, heads turned back, to see if their shadows were somehow becoming disconnected from them due to their jogs. They tried stopping quickly and meandering in strange paths, but the shadows still were firmly stuck to them.
One little boy tried to get away from his shadow by stepping up on a small brick wall in the schoolyard. His shadow followed him up there too.
Disappointed with his failed theory, he jumped off of the bricks.
As he jumped and looked down at his landing spot, he saw it – the darkened image of himself had become momentarily separated from his body while he was in the air.
He landed and the image became connected to him once again.
Discerning Our Origin as the Images of God
We are inherently connected to God because Genesis 1:26-27 tells us that we are created in both God’s image and likeness.
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
– New Revised Standard Version, Genesis 1:26-27
The Responsibility of Being Created in God’s Image
It is mentioned more than once in the Bible that we are made in God’s image or likeness.
Interestingly, if we look at the Hebrew word used for “image” in Genesis 1:26-27, we find the word tselem, a masculine noun in Hebrew meaning “image”. Its root word – tsel – means “shadow” or “shade”.
The preschoolers discovered that their shadows were similar in form to themselves, but not exact duplicates. The shadows didn’t have every trait of themselves, but they were a recognizable version of themselves.
We bear God’s image and should rightly feel the importance of all that entails. As humans, we layer forms of sin and transgressions upon His image, separating us from Him as fallible humans. We are the shadows of unattainable perfection.
God created us as His children with souls that are unique and unquestionable in their source. Inviting the Holy Spirit to dwell within us allows us to create a vibrant tapestry with a weave that is strengthened by our unity. Unity allows us to support one another and strengthens us as Christian brothers and sisters.
We strive to be Christ-like in all that we do and to embody the Holy Spirit in how we love and care for others wholly, equally, and unconditionally. God loves us and wants each of us to give to one another in a spirit of community and to use the gifts He has blessed us with in His grand design to further His work here on Earth.
The long-time churchgoer.
Those in the castles on the hill.
Those who discriminate against others.
The ones with lives and loves with whom we might not fully relate.
We’re all made in His likeness and we should be compelled to treat other likeness-bearers with the same compassion that our Creator is due.
A Heavenly Light on the Shadows
A solar eclipse happened on the last day I was in elementary school before moving on to junior high. The path of the peak of the eclipse was passing within a few dozen miles of us in Alabama and happened right around the time the “graduation” program was ending.
We all rushed outside after the program ended and grabbed various viewing contraptions that we’d been making the week before. Mine was a cardboard toilet paper roll with a pinhole in a piece of paper over the end.
Excitedly, I held my device over my shoulder and aimed into the only place that would be dark enough for me to see the light of the sun with the moon passing in front of it.
My parents snapped the picture of me included in this post with the eclipse in my shadow – May 30th, 1984.
I could see the moon clearly in front of the sun. That day, we could see the light because of all of the shadows that allowed it to be seen.
We are made in God’s image – shadows of His glory. Like the little boy on the brick wall, sometimes we jump away and separate our shadows from the One who has created them for us. God always wants us to land and reconnect.
The Takeaway
Riverchase UMC friends, we must be the images of God as he designed us. What does the image of God look like to you? If we are created in that image, then are we not designed to love and be patient with one another?
We are co-creators with God – created in His image – in building His ultimate kingdom both in the present and in the days to come.
His light shines upon us and it’s our calling to be the best image of Him that we can be.
