There was a time in my life when I was embittered, angry, and unforgiving towards another when the Lord revealed to me that I should release them from the expectations that I had placed upon them. When I did this it empowered me to see them as another human being. This paved the way to understanding and forgiveness. Recently I realized that when I am unforgiving, demeaning, critical, and judgmental of another I am simply de-humanizing that person, and that this is the root of many of the sins we commit against one another. When I call some one a derogatory name, or measure them according to the yardstick of self – myself being God, judge, and jury – I am in turn defacing the one who bears the fingerprints of God. In the past 30 years or so it seems that the march to dehumanization has quickened its pace as we become more like the technology that is our idol of choice. Instead of evolving as popular science suggests we digress downhill in becoming more like the animals we’ve been taught that we evolved from. Sexual immorality, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, child molestation, pornography, abortion on demand all become symptoms of our animalistic lust. In other words we become less than human. We turn other human beings into commodities to be traded, used, abused and tossed on the garbage heap after their value has been extinguished by our self-centered whims. It’s time to awaken to the Imago Dei, or the Image of God, and embrace once again what it means to be human. This cannot be fully realized apart from Jesus Who provides us with not only the Model, but the empowerment of the Law of His Spirit and Grace to attain it.