The Essence of God

The "Who am I?" question is one that has been around a long time.  Long centuries ago the Biblical writer asked the question with the words, "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:4)  I can remember pondering it as a teenager and as an old man who lives amazed that God continues to make use of him.  As the years have piled up into decades, I find myself returning again and again to the ancient book which speaks of you and me being made in the image and likeness of God. (Genesis 1:26)   

Of course, none of us reads these ancient words and thinks that God looks like us.  The Word does not say He looks like us, or that He cloned us to look like Him.  Instead, it points us to His invisible nature. There is something about who we are that is just as invisible to the eye as He is to us.  What is integral to our being and what is invisible to the human eye is the essence of God.  To say we bear the image or likeness of God is to say that the essence of His invisible being is in us.  

When I first started pondering this possibility, I remember seeing someone and saying to myself, "The essence of God is in that one" in the same mysterious way I used to hold the holy bread and say, "The body of Christ."  Some would say we are born in sin and while I understand the truth of what is being said, it also seems true that we are born in the essence of God.  We may have allowed that holy essence to be distorted to the point of not being seen, but it does not change the fact that it is, at the core of our being, who we are.