We Are God's Image in the World

Lindsey Mitzel considers how her children remind her of her love for her husband, and how that is similar to the way we image God to the world. 

Though married for over a decade, I just made the connection that all the adorable features I love most about my kids are the same features I love about my husband as well. My most recent miracle is about to turn four months old. When she was born, she looked just like her sister. A few months later, she is beginning to resemble another sister. As I nuzzle her close, I fall in love again, with her ears, her little feet, and her perfect squishy tummy. Even after several children, I’m surprised to admire her particularly lovable features and suddenly realize that those features also remind me of how much I love my husband.

The Family: An Icon of Love

I’m flooded with an awareness of gratitude. When we joined together in matrimony, we became an icon of love: a family. As God allowed it, our love manifested to the world in the form of our children. Our family is meant to be the first place where our children receive love. Ideally, our children learn that they are lovable, and learn of the Father’s love, through our love for them.

So often, I see my own weaknesses born in my children — maybe a phrase that I wish I didn’t use or an attitude toward something inconvenient that is, let’s just say, the opposite of patience and long-suffering. However, my favorite moments are witnessing my children surpassing my husband and me in strength and virtues. I’m humbled to watch them achieve what I’ve struggled mightily with. Something that has been very difficult to learn, seems child’s play for my kids: their heart for the poor and needy, generosity toward others, for example, appears instinctual, instead of hard-won. Just as we are made in God’s image and called to bear Him to the world, our children bear our image to the world as well.

In Genesis 1:26, the Lord says, “Then let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness.” In a totally unique way, each of us mirrors the image of God to the world. Just as someone might see one of my children and say, “Oh, they look like one of yours!”, our own features — physical and virtuous — are meant to image God. However, the temptation to look like anyone (or everyone) else can also be dangerous. If we all look alike, we lose individuality, and God’s true image in the world is also lost.

Just as we tend to inwardly cringe if we’re compared to others rather than being seen for the unique creation that we are, if we try to be someone other than who we were created to be, we miss the opportunity to bear Christ in our own unique way in the world.

Growing in Love for God

The more we grow in love for God, the more we resemble Him and become like Him. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux described this reality in her famous analogy about flowers. It’s not lost on me that I’ve similarly been using words we use to describe flowers: "stemming from” and “growing closer to.” Saint Thérèse wrote,

Every flower has its own created beauty. The splendor of the rose, the lily’s whiteness does not deprive the violet of its scent nor lessen the daisy’s charm. If every flower wanted to be a rose, nature would lose her spring adornments and the fields would not be beautiful with their varied flowers … so it is in the world of souls the living garden of God. It pleases Him to create great saints. but ... Our Lord’s love shines out just as much through a little soul that yields completely to His grace as in the greatest ... what delights Him is the simplicity of these flowers of the field and by stooping low, He shows how infinitely great He is. (Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul)

Saint Thérèse describes so beautifully that what God loves most about each of us is seeing His love and His creation in us, no matter how small or insignificant-feeling that creation is. We are all children of God, all made in His likeness: made to love Him and delight in Him and in His creation — including our children. When I look at my kids, and think of my husband, I can be reminded of these different images of God in the world and grow in gratitude how much God loves each of us.

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Copyright 2025 Lindsey Mitzel
Images: Canva