Image of God

Our Apostle Paul wrote that "Christ is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1: 15). While I understand what the 'image of God' means, I am more interested in how I should respond to that.

Today, our world is full of violence. How should my following the image of God change the way that I act.

Yesterday, I saw two violent drivers. The first one, would have hit the drive in front of my, but that driver slammed on his brakes. The second would have hit me, but I swerved into the left hand turn lane. Ironically, the man that almost hit me, leaned out of his window and started yelling at me.

I am not proud of my reaction. I was angry. I felt righteous anger. Unfortunatley, this is not a reaction that I can claim Jesus WOULD have done. I can justify myself and say that Jesus did get angry at times. However, I do not know that Jesus would have been angry at this time. I can say that Jesus would have reacted. But, I cannot say that He would have been angry.

A better reaction than anger would have been for me to immediately ask God what to do. (I did this, but my reaction in speaking with God was delayed.) Ironically, God did not tell me to chase the man down and talk to him. But, He did give me a peace about my having behaved calmly.

And Jesus did behave this way. He told us to pray to the heavenly Father. Jesus told us that He did what the Father told Him to do.