In His Image....

[jethro]

Here is a man in the shadow of age,
Eyes slowly blind,laden with cries
In a mind full of words, undimmed by the kiss of time
He knows the divine music that often plays
In his poems, he knows the depth of winter
Whiteness in aged bones and the drifting snow
In his hair He knows too,a perfect built-in image
Inside that rarely shows, but, he can feel
The infinite finger-tip on tongue and lip.
He can hear it in the ocean's reach, in the wind's pulse,
Sees it in the sun,moon and stars,in the
Spilled rain, in the dark that falls the stone cities
Of the world, and in the light that brights each
New day. This 'image' that breathes the heart the pulse
The pen, that locks the words on the naked page,
This old white-haired imperfect man who knows well
Within his heart some awesome, mighty source
That seeks him out in the shallows of his sinful life
And walks in him the wakening breath gentle as a breaking morning
Something far to big an far to grand, immeasurable to
Fit in any poem, an 'image' that never can grow old
Flows on in us from age to age....ageless.
*
jethro
.

[Pablo Rafael]

Jethro,

Thanks for sharing this.

I think that the image of God is visible in the world all around us. I believe that God is love and when that love is shown forth, the image of God is apparent. No one is closer to God than when he/she is showing love to someone else.

Tu Amigo, Pablo

[jethro]

I agree Pablo,when I was a young boy, my mother told me to look for the mark
of Christ in all MY dealings with men/women-WE ARE ALL MADE, AS SCRIPTURE SAYS
IN THE IMAGE OF OUR MAKER, BUT, AND THERE IS A BUT,one who is IN CHRIST
and Christ in them, seeks always to do the will of God, to love and seek to do Good.
There are.sadly, many Christians in name only.Amen

[Pablo Rafael]

Just read this quote and thought it was fitting for this thread. Bonhoeffer was certainly a man who thought outside the box of Christianity (and Lutheranism). He paid for his integrity with his life, but it was a life that has continued to infuence people to this day.

"God does not want me to model others into the image that seems good to me, that is, into my own image. Instead, in their freedom from me God made other people in God's own image. I can never know in advance how God's image should appear in others. That image always takes on a completely new and unique form whose origin is found solely in God's free and sovereign act of creation. To me that form may seem strange, even ungodly. But God creates every person in the image of God's Son, the Crucified, and this image, likewise, certainly looked strange and ungodly to me before I grasped it. Strong and weak, wise or foolish, talented or untalented, pious or less pious, the complete diversity of individuals in the community is no longer a pretext for self-justification. Rather this diversity is a reason for rejoicing in one another and serving one another."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -from Life Together

[Gennee]

Thank you for sharing, Jethro. I have learned over the years that we need to demonstrate God's love :love: in action.

Gennee