We are the image of God

We are the image of God, and this image of God is made magnificently visible in Jesus, Jesus who reflects to us who we truly are. He is the mirror, as it were, of our
true self, the image of the invisible God as St Paul describes him. Meditation is constantly teaching us that we must let go of God, the God of our minds, the God of our concepts in order to love God. This is a lesson we learn through all human relationships. To love, we must let go: we must move beyond the image of the other person that may have formed itself in our minds in order to find the reality. And a relationship can only be deep and enduring if we are moving beyond the image to the reality –– if we are letting go of the person we love. We cannot be united without this experience of renunciation, And we can only know God by love. This is the great teaching of the whole Christian tradition. God cannot be contained in any thought, or in any mental or legal system, or in any place, in any ritual, in any external form. But God can be known by love and, therefore, we must learn how to love God.

( Aspects of Love 3, by Laurence Freeman )