A while back I was having a good casual conversation with a friend of the opposite sex. When we concluded our conversation, I told her she had a beautiful soul. She found that to be the most amazing compliment she had ever been given. Now just to clarify, I am a happily married man with a beautiful helpmate. And nothing about the conversation with this woman was secret or sexual, but it got me thinking. Why was this such an amazing compliment to my friend? I started thinking about humans as image bearers of Christ. Scripture teaches that we are image bearers whether we believe in Him or not; we all bear the image of our Creator. It reminded me of a sermon I did on Genesis 1 and 2; it was also a blog post. See: http://dprewitt.blogspot.com/2010/08/signature-of-divine.html
Everyone-Christian or not-bears the image of the Creator. In some it's easy to see that image, for example Mother Teresa. In others it's harder to see-pick any serial killer or perpetrator of a mass shooting. Even politicians bear the image of their Creator. The problem is the context in which each person lives. Their context, along with our own baggage, determines how well we can see the Creator's image in the bearer. Essentially, when I say to anyone, "you have a beautiful soul", I am saying that, because of our conversation and the intimacy of our relationship-regardless of sex, or context-your image, the image of the Creator of the universe that you bear is visible to me. Because of your uniqueness, because of our relationship, and because there are facets of who you are, I am reminded of how amazing this universe and your part in it is. Because I can see even a small picture of Christ in you as an image bearer, you have a beautiful soul. Which leads me to a teaching moment for myself and hopefully others: since we all bear the image of our Creator maybe, just maybe, I should see it in more people than I do. Because, as I put it in the sermon, we are all signatures of the Devine. Everyone in the human race was created as the final touch of the Master's brush on His masterpiece of Creation. So in truth, we all have a beautiful soul; we just need to look for it more in others we meet. There will be more to come on this topic.
