Humanity in God’s Image
Seen in Scenes I saw in New York City
Written by Dan McDonald
Within the Anglican tradition the
Christmas season is the twelve day period beginning on December 25 and running
through January 5. It may not seem like photographs from a visit to New York
City has much to do with the twelve days of Christmas, but for me the scenes I
saw in New York City often seemed to confirm how mankind is created in God’s
image. I saw in my exploring New York City especially the evidence that the
Creator God created in humanity a species that creates. The story of Christmas
is the story of humanity created in God’s image coming full circle. God created
man in his image in the creation and God filled humanity’s image bearing
capacity with the Divine Presence when God made his presence in humanity in
Jesus Christ. Thus the story of man being created to bear God’s image came full
circle when God came to fill that image with his Divine Presence on Christmas
Day.
In my short stay in New York I saw
only a bit of Manhattan, less of Brooklyn, a sliver of Queens on the way to the
airport and none of the other boroughs. Nevertheless there were sights and
scenes that reminded me how creative and how related to creation we human
beings are.
I tried to capture one of the scenes
making this impression on me as I took a photograph of the Manhattan skyline as
seen from across the East River from Brooklyn Heights at night. How many people
did it take to make this photograph a reality? The workers who engineered,
planned, provided supplies and built all the buildings before us had to have
numbered in the tens of thousands to create this scene. God the creator created
man in his image and man created in God’s image seems driven to wish to create.
How many people worked to create this scene?
Our creativity is characterized by
continual striving for innovation and a desire to add beauty to mere
functionality. The Brooklyn Bridge built in 1883 helped transform the two
cities of New York and Brooklyn to become the single metropolis of a city it is
today. The bridge’s history and beauty has helped make it continue to be one of
the iconic landmarks of New York City appreciated around the world. It is hard
to imagine that this bridge was built nearly forty years before San Francisco’s
Golden Gate Bridge.
The Brooklyn Bridge
An interesting feature regarding the
building of the Brooklyn Bridge is the significant role performed by a woman
named Emily Warren Roebling.
Roebling was the wife of Washington Roebling who had been selected to oversee
the bridge’s building. He became sick and was bedfast. His wife was almost the
only one with access to him during his long illness. She communicated
information between him and others working on the project. She was more than
someone who communicated information. She “developed an extensive knowledge of
strength of materials, stress analysis, cable construction, and calculating
catenary curves through Washington Roebling’s teachings.” (Wikipedia, which I
know is not suitable as an academic source) There were times in the building of
the bridge that unforeseen problems led some to believe the bridge building
plans should be abandoned. Roebling was able with her knowledge of the
situation to persuade the doubters to move forward until the bridge was
completed.
In the 1930’s two skyscrapers were
being erected in midtown Manhattan, with each of the builders hoping to create
the world’s tallest building. The firms building the Empire State Building and
the Chrysler Building tried to keep their plans secret so the other one
wouldn’t be able to change their plans so as to end up with the taller
building. The Empire State Building ended up taller but the Chrysler Building
won its place on the New York City landscape with its unique form and beauty.
My photograph of the Chrysler Building was taken from the eighty-sixth floor
observatory of the Empire State Building.
As beautiful as Manhattan’s skyline is, creativity is not
limited to tall magnificent buildings requiring thousands of workers. I took a
journey to Roberta’s a pizza parlor in Brooklyn. It was a different looking
neighborhood than I saw in Manhattan but the signs of human creativity were not
difficult to discover. This neighborhood exists near the “L” train stop at the
Morgan Avenue Station in Brooklyn. I instantly fell in love with the detail of the artwork in these paintings.
AND
Humanity’s love for beauty is not
limited to what we can construct and put within nature. We show creativity not
only in our building things to put inside of nature, but also in our struggle
to conserve and preserve the beauty of nature within our cities. If the
skyscrapers on the skyline represent one picture of Manhattan, then Central
Park is also an iconic part of Manhattan. Nature is not simplistically allowed
to grow wild with our human individuals becoming mere spectators peering into
nature, but instead Central Park is a cultivated nature cared for by curates
interested in creating a place where nature can thrive and where individuals
can take a relaxing walk in the park. I had camera problems as I entered
Central Park and had not resigned myself to the reality that my camera was a
piece of history. So it was not until I was about to exit the park that I took
a photograph of a playground built to respect nature while giving children a
place to play. You can see the playground is near to the park’s entrance or
exit depending on the direction you were walking.
After I left the park but was still
near it, I became a penitent tourist ashamed of how I had not taken photographs
worthy of showing the park in its beauty. So walking along the southern
boundary of the park I found a place where I could get a decent photograph of
the park from just outside the fence. The sun had gone down and it was becoming
dark and there is a sort of beauty with the lights of the park shining in the
darkness.
The desire to have pieces of nature
in the city is not limited to Central Park. I was staying in an apartment at a
bed n’ breakfast on West 48th Street and the Clinton Community
Garden was a short block to my east on 48th Street. It was less than
ten blocks from Times Square but it was also a piece of nature in the city.
It may seem like the story of a babe
born in Bethlehem has little to do with a metropolis like New York City. But in
reality there are significant connections. We have come full circle from
creation. We human beings were created in God’s image. We have these passions
to create and yet we know and feel our brokenness. We build great buildings and
wonder what is missing. Somehow we who were created in a Creator’s image feel
separated from that Creator whose image we imperfectly bear. But the story of
Bethlehem is the story of our humanity coming full circle. It is the story of
how God entered our humanity, and how in this babe born in Bethlehem the Divine
Presence is inserted into our humanity created to bear the image of our
Creator. This babe’s presence in our humanity was meant to grow and the light
coming into the world was meant to have an impact on all humanity.
The birth of the baby in little
Bethlehem was the sign of a new heavens and earth about to be constructed. This
babe would grow up, live, die, be buried, and rise from the dead. He would call
us to live a new life in him. We would discover that in him our creativity
would find its meaning and purpose. We would be writers in a book being written
by another. We would be painters in a painting being painted by another. We
would be builders in a city being built without hands. Yet we would know that
it was for this good purpose that we are his workmanship created for good
works. This small community of faithful drawing near to the babe on Christmas morning
would become a great city where no one could number its inhabitants. If the
stable in little Bethlehem was a picture of the kingdom of God, so perhaps also
is New York City.
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