The human was created “in the image of God”. For millennia people have been debating exactly what this means, but Hebrew scriptures insist upon it, asserting so at creation, and shortly thereafter following the great flood. That’s the flood that God brought because S/HE was so utterly disappointed in the human creature. God says, “Gee whizz, I regret the flood, and all the destruction I have wrought. I promise to never do that again. And neither should you humans shed each other’s blood, because you are all made in my image.”
Theologically, God’s regret at having nearly destroyed all of creation is just about my favorite snapshot of God in all of scriptures. So many people focus on the destruction. What utterly melts my heart, and simultaneously lifts my spirit, is the depiction of God in such a human and relatable way. Pain, rage, disappointment in the human race is something I assume all of us have felt at one moment or another. But a decision to write off the whole project – in the end we cannot do that. This planet is our home, flawed humanity is our family.
This is a lesson we see God learning. It’s audacious, I think, for a holy book to fearlessly show God modeling the ups and downs of what we ourselves experience. We enter into a project hopeful, idealistic. Then reality hits, and it turns out to be harder than we expected. That’s when we should pause, reflect, reconcile, and make plans for how to begin fresh.
That rainbow that God is said to have placed in the sky – that’s for all of humanity; to look up at, revel in its beauty, feel our spirits lifted, and to renew our hope. Hope we perhaps never should have lost sight of, but oh well. It happens. We are only human. And divine.
Time to start fresh.
Shosh Dworsky
Associate Chaplain for Jewish and Interfaith Life