All God's People

I got a phone call yesterday that went like this: “Holly, this is Angel (Spanish pronunciation that sounds like “Onhel.), Angel, the Mexican. I found a toilet on sale.” I love this guy :) Angel and his wife Janelle and children are some of my favorite people right now. Janelle is an RCA pastor, Angel is in seminary, Miss Miriam is 6 and Miss Lorraina is 4.

This family is living in a house we are rehabbing with the goal of renting to college or seminary students. Angel is working off rent, thus the excitement over a toilet on sale. In his life before seminary Angel worked in construction; painting, laying flooring, drywalling, etc. It is such a blessing to have someone willing and able to help us finish the work.

They are blessed to be able to have a way to rent without having to use up all of their savings. It is a win/win. We met them a few years back in British Columbia, and God has just kept us connected every since, despite both of us making cross country moves....to the same place, though we had no idea this was going to happen back then.

Angel has the greatest sense of humor, alongside a heart's desire for community development that honors and respects all people; that recognizes we are all created in the image of God.

I feel so blessed that Angel and Janelle's and the girls are a part of our diverse “family.” Often I am overwhelmed by the people God has placed in my life. People who can teach me so much about God's world...people who stretch me...people who teach me to eat flavorful new foods..people who make me stop to think about the things I assume are Christian, when really they are just cultural...people whose hearts beat with passions I know little about because of my sheltered beginnings...people whose faith impacts mine....people who are different, and yet in our core beings we are all the same...created in the image of God. This is our primary identity...our uniqueness in all creation.

I read the phrase recently, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” I wish I could remember who said it, so I could give credit. Imagine the difference it would make if we all believed that each person we encounter has (sometimes hidden) within them the image of God! One thing I am confident of; we best live out our image of God in community! We need each other to be the best we are created to be.

Imagine the difference it will make if we all...each and every one of us realized that we are bearers of the image of God as we walk around our worlds loving the other image bearers...the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the not so beautiful, the likeable and those not so likeable. 

The challenge...Believe it! Embrace it! Live it! Be in a fellowship, a community, that helps you wrestle with what this means.

Psalm 8:4  who is mankind that you take thought of him/her, and the son of man that you care for them?
Genesis 1:26  The God said, "Let us make man(kind) in our own image, in our likeness..."
Genesis 2:7  God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.