Good morning!
“He is the image of the invisible God.”
I can’t get these words from Colossians 1:15 off my mind.
We so often struggle to talk to children about God—to explain who He is to us—how He has created us, loved us, and forgiven us. And how He is with us always, though we cannot see Him.
We struggle to answer children’s questions, especially the one about what God looks like. We have never seen the face of God; no one alive today has ever been able to look upon God in all His splendor—and lived to tell about it!
And yet, in a way, we do know what God “looks like” and so much more about Him. Because we have “seen” the Lord, according to Colossians!
Jesus Christ is “the image of the invisible God.” He is God’s self-revelation to us. The Divine has shown Himself to human beings in a way we can grasp—as a human being—like us, but without sin. Jesus showed us the way to reconciliation with God the Father through His own body, broken and spilled out for our sakes. And because we believe that Jesus is the incarnation of God and the Second “Person” of the Trinity, we believe that in Jesus God Himself suffered and made the sacrifice for the sins of the world on the cross.
We have seen God in Jesus Christ when the Lord healed people of disease, forgave them, and miraculously fed crowds with a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread. We have seen God in Jesus when our Lord spoke a word and calmed the wind and the waves during a storm at sea.
We have seen God in the loving relationships Jesus had with His disciples and in his personal, intimate way with people who were all but “strangers” to Him, people such as the Samaritan woman at the well. Remember how she couldn’t get over this man who knew “everything” about her life—including all the men she had lived with—yet he didn’t refuse to talk with her? He was gentle and compassionate, sharing His true identity with her—and she not only believed in Him, she ran to joyfully proclaim Christ to her community.
And there is at least one other way we have seen the Lord. We have seen Christ in the sometimes surprising kindness and generosity of human beings –some of them complete strangers! How much more proof do we need that Christ the Son, the image of the invisible God, still lives in us and among us, than our hearts of compassion and the loving prayers we pour out for others—even those whom we have never met—when we hear about their suffering?
Will you pray with me now?
Creator God, our Loving Father, thank you for revealing yourself to us through your Son, Jesus Christ! Thank you for sending Jesus to show us a righteous life, lived in submission to Your Will and led by your Spirit. Thank you for showing us the way to abundant and eternal life by faith in Your Son’s work on the cross. Help us to see You in the compassionate care and generosity of other people, especially in the kindness of strangers. And may your Spirit continue to transform us—a little more every day—into the image of Your Son. In Him we pray. Amen!
Blessings.
Pastor Karen
“He is the image of the invisible God.”
I can’t get these words from Colossians 1:15 off my mind.
We so often struggle to talk to children about God—to explain who He is to us—how He has created us, loved us, and forgiven us. And how He is with us always, though we cannot see Him.
We struggle to answer children’s questions, especially the one about what God looks like. We have never seen the face of God; no one alive today has ever been able to look upon God in all His splendor—and lived to tell about it!
And yet, in a way, we do know what God “looks like” and so much more about Him. Because we have “seen” the Lord, according to Colossians!
Jesus Christ is “the image of the invisible God.” He is God’s self-revelation to us. The Divine has shown Himself to human beings in a way we can grasp—as a human being—like us, but without sin. Jesus showed us the way to reconciliation with God the Father through His own body, broken and spilled out for our sakes. And because we believe that Jesus is the incarnation of God and the Second “Person” of the Trinity, we believe that in Jesus God Himself suffered and made the sacrifice for the sins of the world on the cross.
We have seen God in Jesus Christ when the Lord healed people of disease, forgave them, and miraculously fed crowds with a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread. We have seen God in Jesus when our Lord spoke a word and calmed the wind and the waves during a storm at sea.
We have seen God in the loving relationships Jesus had with His disciples and in his personal, intimate way with people who were all but “strangers” to Him, people such as the Samaritan woman at the well. Remember how she couldn’t get over this man who knew “everything” about her life—including all the men she had lived with—yet he didn’t refuse to talk with her? He was gentle and compassionate, sharing His true identity with her—and she not only believed in Him, she ran to joyfully proclaim Christ to her community.
And there is at least one other way we have seen the Lord. We have seen Christ in the sometimes surprising kindness and generosity of human beings –some of them complete strangers! How much more proof do we need that Christ the Son, the image of the invisible God, still lives in us and among us, than our hearts of compassion and the loving prayers we pour out for others—even those whom we have never met—when we hear about their suffering?
Will you pray with me now?
Creator God, our Loving Father, thank you for revealing yourself to us through your Son, Jesus Christ! Thank you for sending Jesus to show us a righteous life, lived in submission to Your Will and led by your Spirit. Thank you for showing us the way to abundant and eternal life by faith in Your Son’s work on the cross. Help us to see You in the compassionate care and generosity of other people, especially in the kindness of strangers. And may your Spirit continue to transform us—a little more every day—into the image of Your Son. In Him we pray. Amen!
Blessings.
Pastor Karen
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