Article February 4, 2008 Issue

THE POWER OF SPIRITUAL REFLECTION

BY KIM GREEN

One of my favorite camping spots is by a lake in the mountains of Colorado. I love sitting on the bank and soaking up the beautiful view of trees, mountains, and sky, surrounding the lake and mirrored perfectly in the calm waters. The reflection matches point for point all the characteristics of its source.

The deeper lesson for me in this is likening God to the original and me to the reflection. I can reflect only what emanates from God. And the more enlightened my understanding of God becomes, the more clearly I can see my identity as God's perfect reflection.

Thinking of man—that is, all men and women—as God's reflection has its origin in the Bible in the very first chapter of Genesis, where we are told that "God created man in his own image" (Gen. 1:27). But that is only the first time this message appears. Over the years I have loved identifying passages throughout the Bible that reinforce the idea of everyone of us as God's image or reflection. For example: "Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy" (Lev. 19:2), "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48), "We love him, because he first loved us" (I John 4:19), and "Every man ... purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (I John 3:3). These are just a few of the verses revealing the qualities we are expected to reflect from the divine source.