Please, Sir, I Want Some More, by Querci

In my previous post What Does Invisible Look Like? I brought up the idea that examining and imitating the perfect name, essence, or likeness, of the Lord Jesus can teach us about the name, essence, or likeness, of the invisible God himself. Now I’m thinking that buried somewhere in all of that is the message that we also get to learn about the name, essence, or likeness of God from one another! 

We each have in us an image and likeness of God, right? Remember, in Genesis:

God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:26-27)

and the Apostle Paul said:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, (Eph 3:14-15)

and

Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. (Rom 1:20) 

I think this means that our essential names, essences, natures, or likenesses are given to us by God from his own Divine Nature. (CCC #41;2158)

Christ received a perfect reflection of the Divine Nature. The rest of were given different subsets of gifts to work with:

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good...[All gifts] are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. (1Cor 12:7,11-12)

So I guess I'm thinking, not only do we all need one another to build up the fullness of the Body of Christ, we each have special need for those who are so different from us that we have a hard time understanding or liking them. They undoubtedly have received a different subset of gifts from us, and so have something important they can teach us about the name, essence, or likeness of God.

Now I can better understand why John tells us:

If any one says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also. (1 John 4:20-21)

And Paul tells us to:

knit [our hearts] together in love, to have all the riches of assured understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Col 2:2-3)

If I cut someone off from me, I’m cutting myself off from and rejecting some portion of the essence of God himself!

This is really starting to make sense to me on a much deeper level than ever before!

Oy, Ember! I think I have some major bridges to mend...