“Lord, help us to see people the way You see people so we can love them the way You call us to love them.” I once heard a pastor teach this prayer so added it to our rolodex of prayers for our family on our way out the door in the mornings. 

So how does God see us? The creation account in Genesis 1 gives us some insight. Compared to the rest of creation, God forms people with a unique and dignifying quality as His image-bearers. Bearing God’s image means we reflect characteristics (like goodness, mercy, love, and justice) that are infinitely true about Him in our very limited human form,* and we relate with one another in a way that corresponds to God’s trinitarian personhood.** When I don’t see people as God’s image-bearers, I can dismiss those qualities, hardening my heart and leaving no room for respect or compassion. My ability to love people as God calls me to is lost. 

What happens? How do we get to that place of not seeing others as God’s image-bearers? Is it the busyness of life distracting us so that people are blurred images as we move from one thing to the next? Is our time spent online removing the personhood of usernames that scroll across our screens? Is the worldview of individualism feeding our propensity to self-absorption keeping our focus only on ourselves? Are we falling into the ancient habit of showing favoritism relegating people’s value to their usefulness, ability, income, or appearance? Yes, to all the above and more, I’m sure! 

Things like these skew our perspective of people we encounter throughout our day. Instead of human beings bearing the image of God, we see problems, inconveniences, annoyances, obstacles, or means to an end. Objectifying people like this makes it easier to ignore them, removing the opportunity to love them as God calls us to love them. So let’s pray…  

“Lord, help us to see people as Your image-bearers, remembering their dignity, so we can love them with grace, patience, humility, and compassion.” 

* You Are a Theologian by Jen Wilkin and J. T. English, page 89 

** Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Revised) by John H. Sailhamer