Reflection

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” - Anne of Green Gables

Autumn has been my favourite season for as long as I can remember. The beauty of the changing colours of foliage overhead, the crunchy texture of leaves underfoot, crisp fresh morning air, pumpkin spice, homemade soups and roasted turkey—I love it all!

It is perhaps no surprise that I have been reflecting on the beauty of creation in this season, given that I spent the last week reflecting on God as Creator and us as created, in light of this past Sunday’s worship theme.

And I’m finding as I do that the glorious beauty of the seasons changing all around us right now is drawing me to reflect on the beautiful diversity of God’s creation, and more particularly of those who are created in God’s image.

Just as I’m glad to live in a world where there is autumn, and cozy evenings with a cup of hot tea, I’m glad to live in a world where there are all kinds of people to reflect to me the vastness of the God who created us all. I believe that we can understand God more fully when God is imaged to us by people of all kinds of diverse backgrounds—a reminder that God is not made in my image, but rather I in God’s.

I wonder whether learning to seek out God’s image in our neighbours could be a powerful act of love in a world where discrimination is too often a daily reality lived by many people, in a world where polarizing opinions and the realities of social media can create divisions that amplify our differences. I wonder whether our most important calling, as followers of Jesus, might just be finding ways to reflect back to others their essential belovedness, the essential belovedness of all God’s created ones, perhaps especially to those who so often face voices telling them they are not enough in some way.

As I marvel in the beautiful tapestry of the multicoloured leaves overhead this week, I also want to be attentive to the beautiful diversity of my neighbours, and the way that diversity draws me closer to the Holy One. Care to join me?

- Pastor Kathy McCamis