Whose image are you?

Ever had an epiphany? A slap across the face moment of sudden and profound comprehension. I did recently. Having been forced by illness into lengthy convalescence, throughout which I was unable to work, I garnered a glimpse at the loveliness potential of others. This is that story.

There are insurances to provide for extended bouts of illness... which is nice, I'm told. However, with those resources at our disposal, my wife and I budgeted a buffer, allowing for those yearly days or weeks I normally ended up being waylaid by the dreaded lurge; a buffer, I must add, that for decades had worked fine.

However, a month into this illness, that buffer was a spent faded memory. Two months in, we were selling furniture and appliances so as just to have money for Christmas. And we still had my medical tests, treatments and medications to pay for... We prayed a lot.

Providentially, though presented many opportunities to worry, we were never left to hang with them for long. And if there was a divine intervention, it was visible only through the human agency of others (which is part of the epiphany).

Here are some of the highlights:

• My wife and I arrive home from one of my many hospital visits to find a box of groceries delivered via courier from Christian friends who lived two hours distant. This was the first of many such deliveries that alleviated our strained circumstances.

• My manager turns up on my doorstep with an envelope, which he pushes into my hand, with the words, "This is from everyone in the maintenance team." It contained the Christmas bonuses of each of my six work colleagues; money they had sacrificed to help me. 

• Another concerned Christian family offered to give us whatever money we needed. We humbly asked if they could pay for my outstanding medical treatments, which I was no longer able to afford. Unable to tell them offhand what the accruing costs were, they gave us $1200. Getting home, we added up the costs to date -- $1199.70

• While having an echo-cardiogram, the cardiologist, a stranger to me, learns that I work as a maintenance officer at the hospital. Afterward, expecting to pay a $500 bill, the receptionist tells me that the doctor has waived it. I'm still unsure why, he gave me no indication he would. Something of my story must have touched a chord with him, I can only assume it was that I worked in a hospital.

• On the recommendation of my doctor, my wife accompanies me to see a Naturopath. After explaining to her my condition and our circumstances, she offers us free consultations on all visits and 20% discount on all medication until I recover ...no explanation given as to why.

The epiphany? 

That it is often in the hardships of our own lives, that God presents the best reflections of himself in others.

It is in suffering that we most acutely feel our needs; and our prayers reflect this, compelling God to consider us mercifully. Yet the  duty of care with which we obligate God is, ironically, the very thing he has obligated each of us to fulfil toward one another. 

It is we, not He, that were created to care for and nurture one another.

Does God stand apart and do nothing then? No. In fact he takes our obligation seriously. After all, it is an obligation based upon being made in his image. And God takes his image seriously. So seriously that he came down to show us just how committed he is, and to leave an example of just how committed we should be toward one another.

We all ask many questions of God. He asked us but one -- Who's image are you reflecting

God's purpose in imaging man after himself, is that man would aspire to reflect that image. Not choose a course opposed to it, but in accord to it. Once in accord, the resulting harmony fulfils not only Gods desire, but achieves for man the greatest sense of fulfilment.