Yourself

“Tell me, who are you, alone, yourself and nameless?”

~Tom Bombadil to Frodo, The Lord of the Rings

As humans, we base much of our identity on our relationships. Consciously or not, the value of our lives is determined largely by the quality of our relationships – to be alone is the most dreaded evil. We introduce ourselves to others as “friend, sister, cousin, etc. of so-and-so”, and indeed our very existence is defined by what family we have come from and what group(s) of people we belong to. Rightly so, for we could not exist apart from them. But our souls, our selves, are descended from and ultimately dependent on no other human. Were all others stripped away and your whole life boiled down to nothing but your own self, what would be left?
 

What is the essence of your self, completely aside from the names others gave you, the reputation you have gained, your part in society? Is your soul an empty slate, made what it is only by the influence of the world around you? The answer, I suppose, would depend on one’s view of the existence of man – if an individual is simply a passing expression of the great organism called Mankind, then he can have little meaning beyond his role in connection with it. But if each individual is rather intended to be an expression of Something greater, and his identification with Mankind is first of all dependent on his relation to that Something, then each individual must have some significance of his own. Of course, I propose the latter.

Every soul possesses something unique, totally independent of the influence of other human beings. That great Something is the Image of God, bestowed on each of us (Genesis 1:26). Now, God is infinite, and He certainly did not entrust His infinity to us, so it follows that every soul has been given some different aspect of that infinite image to display. God fashions our hearts individually (Psalm 33:15), taking utmost care in the details of each one. Now, does this imply that we don't need other humans? Quite the contrary – since we each bear the image of God in a way that no one else can, it is our duty first to know and love Him, then to share His image with Mankind. And we can learn much from others who bear God's image in a way that we do not. It is only when our identity is not dependent on our relationships that we will truly find value in them.