Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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MADE FOR EACH OTHER

Genesis 1:20-31
“So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1: 27)
Genesis 1:20-31 describes God’s creative engagements in detail and it says that God was so busy in the life giving process. Life originates from God and in it we find God’s blessings, hence we are a blessed and divine community (v 28).

Family - God's Divine self in the world (God the Creator) Godhead is very much present in our own very lives and family (Family as Theosis). Life and its responsibilities including family is a gift of God and affirm the fact that it came from God and it shows the love of God towards us. Life came to this earth when God took initiative and shared God-self with the cosmos and it was an interdependent, reciprocal one and not hierarchical or dominative.

Family in a Wider Web of Relationships: Our definition of family is more anthropocentric, hierarchical and patriarchal in nature and we spend much time in proving who is superior and who is inferior. But God created male and female in the midst of a very harmonious and just environment where all creatures live in mutuality. God placed human being in this mutual existence to nurture and edify it according to God’s will. Plants, birds, trees, male, female and all creatures come in this great web of relationship and center of this web of relationship is God. This web exists in a just and reconciled relationship.

Image of God: True Mark of the Family God created human beings in the image of God. In the image of God there is no patriarchy, domination, superior – inferior relationship, but the image of God reflects that we are divine, reconciled with each other and environment. Today we are talking about family problems, divorce and conflicts within and between families but we forget the root cause of it. Apparently we treat the symptoms of the disease but not the disease. We lost the image of God and thereby the true harmony within the web of relationship. Regaining the lost image of God through true repentance is the only solution to build a reconciled relationship between God and our wider and immediate family members. In the image of God we find the rule of love not love for rule and dominate. Let love rule among us not power, money and hierarchy.

Prayer: God of our Families, come and brood over our families through your divine spirit so that we may regain the true image of God in our families and our relationships. Amen.

Rev. Sajeev Thomas, London









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