“You play, You win, You play, You lose. You play. It’s the playing that’s irresistible.
Dicing from one year to the next with the things You Love,
What You risk reveals what You value. ….”
(Jeanette Winterson)
“Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and
in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own….”
(, 1749 – 1832)
“There is a space between self and other where the boundaries melt…
Where being myself means being attuned to others…
Where being in sync with those around me means finding my self of worth….”
(Monica Diaz)
(Monica Diaz)
God is infinite. In the Old Testament, the Shema (“Hear, O Israel – the LORD Your God is one…”) is referring with the word “one” more to the conceptual aspect of “infinite” than to the notion of singular (for which a different word meaning “one” is almost exclusively used). Sometimes, people are shocked to learn that Isaiah lists the seven spirits of God. i’m not going to blog today about how God is infinite (that will be for another time), nor am i going to post about how God is Themself community. However, i do want to write about what the facts of the nature of God (being infinite & communal) say about the value of every…every single one. In multiplicity, there is aggregate value, by definition. It can’t be any other way, unless – of course – You want to argue that there isn’t value in any of it….
The Truth is that we are made in the Divine image. We reflect what God is….
In the Jewish world, people are taught to not dare speak evil against another person or even an angel (cf. Jude 1:9). Why? Because of whomever they might be speaking evil is a creation of God – just like them. To speak condemningly about another creation is to speak against the Creator. The viewpoint is that it’s just not within the human purview to speak of such things. This attitude is a proper one – to let God be God and to let creations be creations.
As creations, human beings are being made in the image of their Creator. It’s not that we were made in the Divine image, but rather that we are being made in Their image. In human terms, we might say something like, “God’s not through working on me yet,” or “i’m a work-in-progress.” That is the reality, and it testifies of our Creator’s ongoing interest in us…
Knowing that, perhaps it should inform our opinions of the value we assign to one another – and to ourselves, too. Our appraisals of the value of human beings (whether us or others) is only valid to the extent that it matches and mirrors the appraisal that our Creator and Father has of us. In fact, we have no right to set a value on either our own Life or the Lives of others, because we do not own the other (cf. 1st Corinthians 6:19-20). We are indeed not our own, for we were bought with a price by Y’shua. YHWH (Blessed be His Holy Name) is the only one with both the authority and the ability to determine the worth of any creation – including You or me.
So, recognize the intrinsic value of an “other” by realizing the inherent worth that he/she carries to his/her Creator. And, when You recognize that and pair that recognition with the remembrance that he/she doesn’t belong to You but rather to God, then maybe You will be able to speak with more grace, more encouragement, or more Love…or maybe just speak less at all…
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