Note: As a personal, spiritual discipline, reviving my practice in the Lenten season of 2017, I revise the prayers I wrote then for each of the forty days of this Lent; each petition focusing on a theme, a concern weighing on my mind and heart or a care of my soul and spirit.
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On beholding the Image of God’s new creation (being a meditation on 2 Corinthians 5.17-18)…
O Lord, You fashioned all things, yea, too, humankind in Your Image. Even more, by Your Son, You redeemed us. Still more, through Your Spirit, You made us a new creation.
Yet, for the longest time and much of the time, I found it hard to see Your Countenance in the faces of others (perhaps, especially, in the face I beheld in the mirror).
For, despite Your creating, saving, sanctifying work, I, oft trusting more (most?) in my observations and opinions, continued to regard others and myself from a human point of view; one, I confess, of judgment as alway failing and falling short of Your will.
Then (I do not remember when, though grateful I am that it hath been) I became convicted of my sin of denying Your goodness and grace.
Since then, in my daily repentance, I give You thanks for being granted new eyes to see others and myself as You see us.
In this, I also praise You for Your merciful, infinite patience with me.
Amen.
Illustration: God creating Heaven and Earth, Jan Brueghel II (aka The Younger) (1601-1678)
occasional observations of mind and heart, soul and spirit 