In my last blog I asked, “What does it mean to be human?” We typically excuse our mistakes with a shrug of the shoulders and the statement, “I’m only human.” Songs have been sung attempting to rectify mistakes, or remove ourselves from taking responsibility for our actions. Yet what I’m discovering as I meditate on this question is that our answer and God’s answer are world’s apart. In fact we have typically learned from personal experience that our attempts at being good, godly, or great are often thwarted by our human, sinful nature. Thus we have learned to define this question from the fall of man forwards. In other words, We have allowed our sin nature to define us. What born-again believers in Jesus have failed to realize is that the sum total of what it means to be human is exemplified in Jesus. Lately I have realized why unforgiveness, judgments, and criticism are so abhorrent to God. These choices that we make actually dehumanize people. They make individuals, made in the image of God, less than who God made them. In fact when we participate in those actions we are dehumanizing who God made us to be. For years I have puzzled over the command, You shall not make yourself any graven image [to worship it] or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;…Exodus 20:4

The Hebrew word translated “graven image” literally means “an idol.” A graven image is an image carved out of stone, wood, or metal. It could be a statue of a person or animal, or a relief carving in a wall or pole. It is differentiated from a molten image, which is melted metal poured into a cast. Abstract Asherah Poles, carved wooden Baal’s covered in gold leaf, and etchings of gods accompanying Egyptian hieroglyphics are all graven images.

Thus a graven image could be a photograph, or video. Why would something so simple be considered sinful? My opinion is that ultimately, like unforgiveness, the graven image either deifies, or dehumanizes humanity reducing the person to an object. How often have we watched people murdered, accosted, or beaten on television, movies, or video games for our entertainment? The violence becomes less real and in the process we become desensitized to it. Could it be that this dehumanizing has led to increased acts of violence? Could it be that that this is why our society no longer values celibacy, marriage, children, and family? Could it be that we are being absorbed into the mechanization, and sterilization of humanity? We’re being absorbed, and assimilated into our technology, our idol. We are becoming what we behold.

The good news is that Jesus provided an escape from our inhumanity. His goal being to restore the original image. The Kingdom of God has come and is advancing. His Garden is in our midst. This is why the Great Commission is so important. His command, which provides us a vision, God’s vision, for all people to the ends of the earth, serves multiple purposes. First it spreads the Message that we truly are made for so much more in our redeemed humanity. Secondly, it humanizes a world that is foreign to us. May I add, a world that is easy to dehumanize, and demonize? A Christian lacking God’s vision is blind to the proportions of God’s Love – “how high, and wide, and long and deep.” Like the Grinch who stole Christmas, the Commission enlarges our hearts, increasing our capacity to love and see others. The most common greeting in the Zulu tribe is “Sawubona.” It literally means “I see you, you are important to me and I value you.” It’s a way to make the other person visible and to accept them as they are with their virtues, nuances, and flaws. In response to this greeting, people usually say with “Shiboka,” which means “I exist for you.” Jesus exists for us, and as Christians – literally “little Christs’ – we exist for the world.

With that in mind please be in prayer for what your family should be giving to foreign missions this Christmas. In the past our church’s goal was $745. Surely by God’s Grace and Spirit we can surpass this goal. Let’s be a part of the prayers offered around the world being a source of encouragement to those who have given so much. Our brothers and sisters around the world are laying down their lives, often literally, for God’s vision. Please seek to be an answer to their prayers.