WEEK 4: IMMIGRATION

God's heart for the outsider is bigger than our politics.

Day 16: Made in the Same Image

Scripture: Genesis 1:27 (NIV)
"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."

Every person you will ever meet carries the image of God. Not just the people who look like you. Not just the people who were born in the same country as you. Not just the people who speak your language or share your background. Every person.

That's the foundation of everything the Bible says about how we treat people who are different from us. Before there are laws about welcoming foreigners. Before there are commands about loving your neighbor. There's this: every human being is made in the image of God.

That means the immigrant family in your neighborhood carries God's image. The student at your school who just moved from another country and doesn't know anyone carries God's image. The person whose story is completely different from yours, whose journey to get here involved things you can't imagine, carries God's image.

When you dismiss someone, dehumanize someone, or treat someone as less than because of where they came from, you're not just being unkind. You're failing to see what God put in them.

This isn't about politics. It's about basic human dignity rooted in who God is and what He made. And it starts with how you see people, one person at a time.

Reflect: Is there a group of people you've been seeing as less than fully human because of where they're from or how they got here? Where did that come from?

Today: The next time you encounter someone from a different background, practice seeing them as an image-bearer first. Before any other category. Just a person made by God.