Divine Mystery

 I grew up in church and as I've talked about before, the older I get the more I realize I don't know (and it's okay).  Lately I've been thinking about how there are a few things in the Christian faith that are actually very mysterious.  For example, the concept of the Trinity: three beings in one, is something I will never fully understand in my limited human brain.  The idea of Jesus walking on earth as a man that a woman gave birth to, son of God and on some other level, God...mysterious.  For me, it's okay that I don't understand these things fully, I still believe them.  

The mystery that I've been wrestling with is the idea that I was created in the image of God, you could say, "a divine being" because I bear the image of the Divine...but that I am also a sinful person.  I have matured enough in my faith that I can hold these two things at once and know that it's yet another mystery.  However, growing up in the church and being taught this was a different story.  I was not given these two teachings with knowledge that I could hold them both at the same time, it was very "this or that" thinking.  How could I be "divine" but also sinful?  My Mom gave me the name Jasmine, she had a dream about flowers three days after I was born.  My Dad gave me my middle name, Divine.  As a kid I just thought, well, they were hippies and weird.  My Dad would always tell me I was divine and I would always resist that idea because my church was telling me I was sinful.  I couldn't possible be divine at the same time, thinking like that was a "slippery slope", wouldn't want to start thinking I'm "like" God...heaven forbid!  But wait...

"Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." (Gen. 1:26)

We are multi-dimensional beings.  We have a physical body, we have emotions, we have thoughts.  We can create, in fact I think it is through creating that we find joy.  Whether it is creating life, creating music, creating art...it is through those things that we find true joy.

Am I "perfect"?  Hell no.  I make mistakes, BIG mistakes, call that "sin" if you want.  

Am I "divine"?  YES.  I absolutely believe that with all my heart.  How can I be "divine" and "sinful" at the same time?  No freaking clue.  It is a mystery that I'll add to the list of things to ask God.  I have just realized that the church has caused a lot of damage and pain in teaching us that because we are "sinful", we are terrible, terrible people.  We are worthless.  We are scum.  I don't believe any of that anymore, it's utter bullshit.  We are beautiful and good.  I know I need Jesus and I also know I am good.

I think the church "fathers" and the people who interpreted and translated the Bible probably had good intentions, more or less but sometimes good intentions still lead to pain.

You are GOOD, you are BEAUTIFUL, you are DIVINE.  You are an IMAGE BEARER.

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