Every Person.

By Adam Baker in All Sorts

be open to what it means to encounter every person as evidence of God’s presence, power, and love.

Kia ora koutou katoa
My family and I have now lived in Ōtepoti Dunedin for two and a half
months, and in that time we have met so many people, almost all of
whom have been new to us. With each and every person - including
every person in our Parish who has welcomed us and said hello, we
have been given a truly beautiful opportunity: to come to know more
of who God is and how God loves the world.
We are told in Genesis 1:27 that every person is tselem demuth, a
Hebrew phrase that suggests something rather beautiful and
mysterious. According to these ancient words, every person that has
ever existed has been carved in the image and likeness of the God who
has made them.
Every single person.
In our lived skin-song, in the ebb and flow of our limbs, hair, words,
and thoughts, all of us live as glimpses, mirrored facets moving,
somehow reflecting and resembling the God who has shaped us into
being.
In some way, we resemble the same God who continues to shape and
sustain us, holding together the continents of the world and stretching
between each flashing crackle in our cells and synapses. Every person
breathes as someone being woven together by the holiness of God.
Every person.
Not only those who believe that there is a God. Not only those who
are living lives committed to Jesus, whom Christian scriptures describe
as the Son of God and Savior of the world. Not only those who choose
to live, love, or act in the same ways that you do. Not only those whom
you, your friends, your family, your church, or your country deem to be
good, acceptable, and right.
Every person.
Every person we have met in Ōtepoti, in Aotearoa, throughout the
United States, and in any country or place we have ever spent time has
offered us a chance to know more of who God is and how God loves
the world. Thank you, friends, for showing God to us in new and
beautiful ways.
May we all be open to what it means to encounter every person as
evidence of God’s presence, power, and love.