It’s something we learn from an early age, the myth of us versus them. As kids it is often for sports, competition or play. As we grow older sometimes the distinctions that we make become more serious with age. It’s no longer about the games we play or the sports teams we cheer on (although sometimes these rivalries are pretty serious), but we begin to make distinctions based on race, regional affiliations, philosophies, gender, etc. the list could go on forever. And although sometimes these differences are naturally observed, the damage we allow them to do at times is quite unnatural. When we operate out of the paradigm of us verses them we begin to rob ourselves of what God may be trying to do through us.

You see, these distinctions do not belong to God. In the beginning we read this about God’s creation of humanity. “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” – Genesis 1:26-27 Here we read that all of mankind is made in the image of God. All of mankind bears God’s image, God’s touch. So when we create these divisions, these categories, we limit our ability to see the “other” as someone who is also made in the image of God. And ultimately the way in which we treat them as a bearer of the image of God is a reflection of our love for God. If that love is limited by sweeping divisions and categories, we are not truly reflecting the love of God for His creation.

In his essay The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis comments on our interaction with fellow image bearers in the following way, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.” One might say that our sweeping categorizations of people much like ‘nations, cultures, arts, civilizations’ are mortal as well and limit our ability to see each other as immortal beings. What would happen if we were able to drop the us versus them mentality? What would happen in our families, relationships, encounters, etc. if we were able to simply see each other as made in the image of God? May you see those around you in a new light today and truly embrace your neighbor as a bearer of the image of God.