40 Days to Heal a Nation’s Racial DivideSample

Day 10: Imago Dei

“I’m your sister,” I assure the room full of male clergy. “With three brothers, I’ve been a sister all my life. I’m a good sister.”

Image matters. Often being the sole female in male spaces, from ministry to Hollywood, I have learned that my image can mean different things to different people. And because women, and especially women of color, have had very little control over negative imaging globally, if given the opportunity to publicly introduce myself to a new group, I take that time to define my image and explain how I am going to treat people and how I should be treated. I usually do this in the context of family. 

If you see me as your sister, you’ll fight to protect me in the same way that my brothers do. If I am your sister and my husband is your brother-in-law and we’ve been faithfully married for almost two decades, you understand that I only have eyes for him and have not one iota of interest in seducing you. If I am your sister, you know I’ve got your back and you’ve got mine. We’re in this together.     

In the beginning of creation, Genesis 1:26-31 says that we are made in the image of God – Imago Dei (Latin) – and thus we are all part of the human family. If you see me as family, as your sister, with the same salvific Blood of Jesus pumping through my veins, then you will seek to love me and not harm or abuse me and vice versa, if we’re a healthy family.

Racism has caused an imaging problem in our nation and in the Church where we have not seen each other in God’s image, as God’s family. God made us and called us good, and we now have a chance to uproot racism everywhere that would say otherwise. We now have the global opportunity to reset our lens, beliefs, systems and institutions to align with God’s Word. 

Can we value one another’s lives as God does and see each other in the Imago Dei?

PRAYER

Father, please forgive us for devaluing each other based on looks and lies passed down from generation to generation. We believe Your Word that You made each one of us in Your image, and You called us good. Please shine Truth in my soul today and show me where I may have harmed others by not treating them as they are made in Your image. Please give me courage to make things right, in Jesus’s Name, Amen.