On this date, more than 200 years ago, on 7 January 1807, a ship named Fair American arrived in the port city of Charleston, South Carolina, with a cargo of 88 kidnapped Africans who would soon be sold as slaves to cotton, rice, and indigo plantation owners in the Lowcountry surrounding the city (Daily Calendar for 2026 from Equal Justice Initiative). When I first saw that calendar entry, I immediately thought of what an oxymoron the name of that ship was – Fair American.
It also struck me as more than ironic that their arrival into the “new world” was so close to the beginning of a new year. Having survived the torturous trip from Africa to the coast of South Carolina, no doubt realizing that more than a few who began the trip were now resting at the bottom of ocean floor, and wondering what this new world would look like – if any of the Africans on that ship were thinking in terms of resolutions for a new year, it might be just one word: survival. And survival would mean a lifetime of hard work, no paycheck at the end of the week, and being owned by another human. They could be sold to another slave owner at any time and separated – perhaps forever – from any family they might have had.
As I was thinking about resolutions for the new year, all sorts of things ran through my head. Typical things that lots of people think about: lose some weight, exercise more, eat less red meat and fried foods, read my Bible more, read more books, get more engaged in church, be a more generous giver, and the list – well the list can be endless!
Somewhere along the path toward New Year’s Day, it crossed my mind that I can make a complicated list of resolutions, but the longer that list becomes, the less likely it is that the list will exist much beyond the end of January. So I started thinking something like this: “What is one resolution that I could focus on for the new year that would have broad implications in my life?”
As I was hanging my 2026 EJI calendar on the wall in my office, I skimmed through the 31 days of January – each of them listing some act of injustice that happened in the past. Some of the events on that calendar are not nearly as old as today’s, but in some ways, they all have a common denominator. That common denominator is a lack of awareness and acceptance that every single human being ever born was created in the image of God.
That includes everyone from those 88 enslaved people on Fair American who arrived in Charleston in 1807 to Martin Luther King and his family, whose home was bombed in 1956 in Montgomery, Alabama while he was speaking at a rally for justice. We could list many acts of injustice before, between, and after those two dates.
Perhaps it was the “convicting work of the Holy Spirit when it comes to sin, righteousness (justice), and judgment” (John 16:8-10) that made me think of this resolution. (By the way, Jesus promises that the Spirit will “convict the world” of sin, righteousness, and judgment.) What if I determined that every single day and in every single interaction I have, I will realize that every single human alive is created in the image of God. Would my life be different? If enough of us chose to do that, could the world be different?
Early Christians didn’t believe that the world was, of its own initiative, getting better and better. But you can’t read Luke’s Acts of the Apostles and not sense that they believed and practiced the good news in a way that made the world better. As Paul insists, the gospel recognizes that in Christ, humans made in the image of God rise above and beyond the age-old cultural distinctions of male and female, Jew and Greek, slave and free. (Galatians 3:28)
I personally believe that we really can’t fully grasp what salvation is all about if we don’t understand the core message of Genesis 1 and 2. That core message isn’t so much a mechanical explanation of how the universe came into being and how humans got here as it is an insistence that however we got here, humans are made in the image of God. That idea permeates the narrative of Scripture and is why John will say, in 1 John 2:2, “And He (Jesus) is the mercy seat concerning our sins, but not only ours, but concerning the whole world.”
If Jesus is willing to be “the mercy seat” – the atoning sacrifice, the propitiation – for the sins of the whole world, how dare I assume the right to treat others unjustly? Aren’t they, like me, created in the image of God?
So my resolution for 2026 is to make sure I diligently treat all humans as if they were made in the image of God – since the Bible I believe is trustworthy affirms that they are!
And remember, we are likely to mess up on that if it becomes our resolution. But rejoice, Ash Wednesday is coming on 18 February, and that is the beginning of Lent. That gives us 40 days leading up to Easter for fasting and praying about our faithful witness to the world and repenting of our failure to treat others as created in the image of God.
Image by tigerlily713 from Pixabay
Wye Huxford 