Every Note Matters to God
It’s one of the first things we learn from the Bible - that God created everything, and in all that God created, human beings are unique in that we alone are made in the image of God. Every human being is special because every human being, in their very life and being, bears the personal imprint of God.
This one truth radically changes how we understand what it means to be human and how we then treat one another as human beings. It teaches us that every human being has inherent value and worth that comes to them direct from God, and thus every human should be treated with basic respect and dignity.
“There are no gradations in the image of God. Every man from a treble white to a bass black is significant on God’s keyboard, precisely because every man is made in the image of God.”
For most of human history, however, this teaching was not the common assumption. The common belief among many cultures and nations was that some people had more value than others, that their lives were worth more than others. People were more valuable because, for example, they were citizens of a dominant empire. Or because they had wealth. Or because they were born into a particular family and social class. Or because they had more swords and guns and cannons.
Other people however were deemed as having the “wrong” citizenship status or gender or social status or race. This made them less “human” and thus less valuable. Once a society sees some people as less valuable as others, it can justify them being neglected and mistreated. And so throughout human history, we see people enslaved and treated as property. Women treated as objects to use and then dispose of if desired. Children abused and abandoned. Prisoners tortured and indiscriminately executed. All of these things are allowable, indeed normal, if human beings aren’t all equally valuable.
The common assumption in our world today that human beings should be given respect and dignity can be traced back to the gradual spread across the world of this early biblical truth. That all people (no matter who they are, where they come from, what they have done or not done) are worthy of being treated with basic respect and dignity and care because all people are made in the image of God.
I’m glad that this truth is one that has led to so many of our notions of equality and freedom today. It changed what was considered the norm in how we treat people throughout the world. And we still need it to change things today. We haven’t lost our need to teach and apply this truth in our culture. There are lots of places this truth still needs to be applied. But the big one that occupies my mind these days is how we have come to a point where we justify people being taunted and mistreated because they have broken America’s immigration laws. We see arguments being made today saying that illegal immigrants should not be afforded any rights or allowances, that it’s okay to house them in poor conditions while processing their immigration status, that’s it’s okay to deport them to other countries besides their home countries, countries where they are likely to be abused and mistreated.
I believe it falls on all of us, but Christians especially, to say once again that no matter who a person is, no matter what they have done or not done, or whatever their citizenship status is, or whatever laws they have not fully complied with, it never removes the fact that they are still a human being. That in however we execute our laws and carry out our policies, we still always treat people as human beings made in God’s image, and afford them the value and dignity that comes to any being who has been created in this way.
As Martin Luther King Jr once said, “There are no gradations in the image of God. Every man from a treble white to a bass black is significant on God’s keyboard, precisely because every man is made in the image of God.” There is a beautiful music that comes when communities and societies and nations appreciate and value and care about all the notes that come from the lives of all the people within them. May many of us, may many churches especially, lead the way in bringing us back to playing that kind of music in our world.
