THOUGHT for the week

Jesus is God’s selfie. In Jesus we see God, as He, God, really is in love.

The love we share which reflects in understanding, sensitivity, acceptance all those facets of Almighty God’s love for each one of us which is real. In Jesus, God’s selfie, love has the power to change lives, perform miracles, is the greatest sign of our potential as human beings.

We are made in God’s image; we have the power to love and do all of these things as we grow into the people God knows we can be that is the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The power to love.

That is why as we prepare for Easter the church gives us time to reflect, reflect on the temptations, loneliness, disappointment in friends, failure, misunderstandings, all of the things faced by Jesus, God’s selfie.

And we reflect on all Jesus faced not because that will miraculously make us better people but because Jesus shows in all these things that God understands. God understands what it is like to be you and God understands what it is like to be me because Jesus is God’s selfie.

The story of Jesus’s death is the story of our death to ambition, pride, anger, jealousy – every day. The story of Jesus’s resurrection is the story of love which is stronger than death itself and brings hope amid the failure and anger. Hope we see in Jesus, God’s selfie, that God understands what it is like to be you, what it is like to be me. Hope that all in the end is harvest.

The Right Reverend Kevin Pearson, Bishop of Argyll and The Isles.