Where's the Image?

Right now, I am charging a battery so I can pull photos off my camera. I have much to blog about, but I like to have an image with my blogs. I like taking photos, or posting cool videos for you to watch and hopefully be encouraged or inspired to run more passionately after our good King Jesus.

As I started writing this post, I wanted to encourage you to help out my friend's organization, Nuru International, by following this link and watching the video on the site. After you watch the video, there is a space below the video where you can leave a comment. Over 500,000 people have watched this video on the site, but very few have left comments. Nuru wants to encourage some highly visited websites to post the video, and to generate even more awareness about the issue of extreme poverty and what Nuru is doing to fight it. The more comments that appear, the more interest that will be drawn from some of these other websites. So you can help spread the word about nuru just by leaving a comment--will you do it?

Right after I started writing this post, I realized, I couldn't just stop with that request to help Nuru. There's something more about the title that stirs me, and I hope it will stir you too. "where's the image?" Did you know that we are made in the image of God? The one billion people who are living on less than $1/day are made in the image of God too. The person who cut you off in traffic the other day is also made in the image of God. Remember the person who really annoyed you you or gave you poor service at the restaurant? They are also made in the image of God. Oh yeah, and all of those people caught up on both sides of the conflict over gaza, those old men and women, and all of those little kids--did you know that they were made in the image of God?

I think we have to wonder about more than this blog post when we ask "where's the image?" it seems like far too many of us have forgotten that all of the people around us are made in the image of God, and so we treat others as less than humans. We refer to human problems as "not my problem" and we end up tarnishing that very image of God in which we ourselves have been made.

I remember reading a quote from Rob Bell that really syncs this all together.

When i respect the image of God in others, I protect the image of God in myself."

So as you go about your day today, I ask you to pause for a moment when you feel like ignoring the needs of others. When you feel like you've got too many problems of your own, take a moment and pause. Ask yourself, where's the image? Look for it. Remember that you and that everyone you meet share in bearing the image of the God of the universe.