When my wife and I celebrated the birth of our first grandchild, we found ourselves at one point asking the inevitable question, “Who do you think she looks like?” In other words, who is imaged in young Ellen Grace? - our daughter, our son-in-law or both? I recall, we concluded, both. This was, no doubt, the safest position to take in preserving good extended family relationships.

I thought again of young Ellen, as I reflected on the following scripture passage: “And God said, “Let us make human beings in our own image after our likeness.” (Gen. 1:26) I think it is very clear from that passage, who we, as followers of Jesus, are to look like. God obviously intends us to reflect all that it means to be a man and woman, having “dominion over all he has made – His very nature and being.” We are meant to image the triune God.

It remains, then, to consider which divine character of God does He want our lives to reflect? Three qualities at least come to mind, arising out of the scriptures: love, righteousness, and holiness. To live in the “Spirit of the Beatitutes” is to reflect purity in our lives and a longing and a thirst after righteousness. When that is happening, the disciples of Jesus are beginning to image God.

But it is love, the very essence of the divine nature, which sets us apart as Jesus’ people. As John wrote, “God is love – everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God (1 Jn 4:7-8). This love, of course, is Agape, which Jesus taught and demonstrated. It is compassionate love, active and self-giving and means even loving enemies and praying for those who may end up crucifying us in one form or another. It is a love that expects and frequently gets nothing in return, and is only made possible by the inbreathing of God’s Spirit into our own lives. It is a caring, self-sacrificial love seen and experienced in my periodic visits to the L’Arche Community of ‘Daybreak’ in Richmond Hill, Ontario, where mentally challenged men and women are affirmed, first and foremost as people with worth and dignity, with many gifts to be used to God’s great glory.

We read of the Spirit of God communicating with our human spirit, when Paul wrote, “The Spirit you have received is … a spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit of God affirms to our spirit that we are God’s children (Rom. 8:15-16)

If we are to truly image that central quality of God’s nature, namely his love, and to manifest such love in our relationships with him and all humanity, perhaps we need to take to heart, not just to head, those words of a familiar hymn invoking God’s Spirit:

Breathe on me, breath of God, fill me with life anew That I may love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do”

Bishop Malcolm is the ambassador of ARM Canada and was formerly the Episcopal bishop of the diocese of Brandon.

The Rt. Rev. Malcolm Harding
Episcopal Visitor to ARM