I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
Matthew 25:35 ESV

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a parable about people meeting God face to face, and God assessing how they have lived their lives. God doesn’t look at what rules they’ve broken, or go through a checklist of beliefs. It’s all about the good that they did for other people – or the opportunity to do good that they missed.

In reporting these everyday deeds, you might expect God to say ‘they were hungry, and you fed them’ or ‘they were strangers and you welcomed them’. But to God, it’s personal. The king in the story puts himself into the place of the powerless and suffering, the needy and the helpless – you welcomed me.

This is an unexpected position to take for an all-powerful and all-knowing being. As creator and provider, and sustainer of all life, surely God doesn’t need anything at all. But we humans carry the image of God. Where people need something, God feels that need.

That should tell us something pretty important about what God is like, and what our creator’s priorities might be.

It should also speak to us about our fellow humans, carriers of the divine image. Because what God thinks of us is totally tied up in how we treat those around us. In Matthew 25, Jesus suggests that when we ignore the needs of other people, we ignore God. And when we serve those around us, we serve God.

That’s something to think about today as we go about our lives. Can we see God’s image in the face of the people we encounter? How will we welcome God in the strangers we meet?