You Remind Me of Someone...

They are so blurry that if I had taken these photos today – I would delete them. If they were printed in the 1990’s – I would throw them away as damaged goods.
But these photographs perpetually sit in my closet as a piece of our family’s history. They bear the image of some Iowa farm folk from the 1800s. Honestly, I am not 100% sure who they are…only that we are related…somehow. Yet, they are likely to stay nestled in my belongings ‘forever’. The image on them keeps them safe.
Like these pictures, we bear an image. It is a likeness infinitely more sacred than a tin type from the Civil War. It is the image of God. Like my family photos, that reflection is blurred and damaged to the point that it is hard to recognize. Still we can be sure that each of us bear God’s ‘engineering stamp’. Even though man has sinned (Genesis 9:6), we are created with that unmistakable mark of God.
But what does that ‘stamp’ look like? How about the ability to choose? The capacity to love? That stirring of compassion? That capability to forgive? Or to put others first? These are not natural. They are supernatural. Aptitudes that do not come from us, but from God as a reflection of Him.
Have you seen the image of God today?