Image of God

When Ethan and Nathan were born and I saw their little faces, I lit up with joy. Joy because they were alive. Joy because their warmth brought me comfort. Joy to be beside my husband, holding them nestled between our arms. Utter joy. What many do not know is that aside from my boys being conjoined, my Nathan also had a cleft lip. I have heard many people speak displeasingly of this deformity of the lip, but when I looked at Nathan, I felt joy and I saw beauty. I would even go as far as to say that the cleft gave him a little character. There was obviously no need for surgery because of his demise, but in my eyes he was perfect. He was made in the image of God. His Creator knit him perfectly for me. I know it sounds paradoxical because they were conjoined (an obvious developmental abnormality) and Nathan had a cleft (a facial abnormality), but all the same they were God's children and made in His image. 

I remember every little thing about the beauty of each of them. Nathan's cleft. Ethan's wrinkled ear. The joining together of their two bodies along the chest and abdomen. They were beautiful to me...God's image. 

Can we see past what we deem perfect? Can we look at the little pieces of ourselves that may seem flawed and embrace it? Can we see the image of God in ourselves? 

Ethan and Nathan have taught me so much in such a short amount of time. Maybe that was the greatest miracle of all. I prayed for their life, but they gave me a new perspective on what life is all about. 

Genesis 1:27 says, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (ESV)