In a recent conversation with a young woman I noticed she had Imago Dei tattooed on the inside of her wrist. For me this tattoo is deeply moving.
The Hebrew scriptures speak of human beings as being made in God’s image, that is, in the Imago Dei. I don’t know what that means exactly, but it points me to the great mystery of the value of human beings and the close connection of human beings and the holy. To say the obvious: it is profoundly affirming to describe someone as an image of God.
One way to describe what we’re about at Open Doors is that we seek to honor this mystery in the human beings who come our way for emergency housing and affordable homes. Unless we have some sense of this mystery in our brothers and sisters we are missing something critical about them. And whenever we sense this mystery it gives us joy.