Deeply moved by the tender trust of friends who had just placed it in my hands, I sat down quietly and reflectively to read their son�s college assignment entitled, �My Image of God.�  In the paper, the young man beautifully recounted how God had revealed himself through the faces of his family members and his friends.  God�s gift of quiet joy pulsed in that paper.

Awestruck by that young man�s encounter with God, I asked each of my Freshmen Theology students to capture their own Image of God in only 5 pages.  Just as had happened with the young man�s account, my own students� words often moved me to prayer.  Some wrote plaintive accounts filled with longing for God�s healing touch in their lives.  For others, excitement gushed forth in joyful stories of the discovery of God�s presence through serving a needy child or through a weekend spiritual retreat sponsored by campus ministry.  A hand-full of students thought it a trick question, and kept asking me to re-define what I had meant by the term, �Image of God.� 

Perhaps most encouraging of all, a group of students who were sunning themselves on the lawn recently, called me over to ask questions like: 

Then one smiling young woman in the group asked, �How should I go about doing library research for this Image of God paper?�  Guessing by her smile that she was only kidding me, I gave an equally clipped and playful reply.  I said, �Just take any verse from the New Testament; read it several times reverently; meditate on it.  Let God do his part in your Image of God paper!  You know, some answers just aren�t found in books!� 

Call it divine inspiration, but this reply provided my student with a fruitful method of prayer the likes of which St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, would approve.  I challenge you to try it, too.  I challenge you to spend a moment now with your own Image of God.  That is, I invite you to meditate for a moment on a verse from today�s Gospel of John.  One popular verse is the following:
 
�Jesus replied, �I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.� 

What do you have to lose by a little prayer with this passage?
Would you try a repeated reverent reading?
 

How did the words of scripture affect your Image of God?