The Fullness of God in You: Healing Our Image of God, Ourselves, and One Another

I spent years of my life knowing God as Father and Elder Brother—but struggling to reconcile the gaps I still felt inside. I knew God loved me, but sometimes it felt as if somehow as a woman I was not represented in the Godhead. If God was ONLY masculine, as wonderful and critical as that is, then being female is in some ways peripheral, less than, an adjunct, unseen, or an afterthought. 

Certainly this has been the overt or covert message in Christendom throughout millennia and in more covert ways to this day, intentionally or not. One can understand and bear with those fallen ways of being and systems, but if God is truly that way, women are just relegated to their lot—their worth and contribution only to be on the tails of the masculine sons of God, who were the real bonafide inheritors and contributors, leaders, and heads of everything except the home or “female” vocations/avocations. 

But God defies all boxing in of Himself, even when it comes to gender and our understanding of the mystery of masculinity and femininity within the Godhead and in ourselves. In keeping, I will refer to God in both masculine and feminine terms for the rest of this blog, to create space for this and challenge us in our limited mindsets to bring us up higher in the mystery of the Trinity.

When Half the Picture Feels Like the Whole

The truth is, many of us have inherited an image of God that, while meaningful and true, is incomplete. We’ve been taught to see God predominantly through a masculine lens: as King, Lord, Master, Father, and Brother. And He absolutely is all of those. But that’s not all He/She is.

The very first chapter of scripture tells us:

This is a profound statement. It tells us something vital we’ve too often overlooked: God is not only masculine. God is also feminine, the completeness of the Godhead imaged in both male and female. Both were needed to reflect His/Her image and likeness, even if the feminine was originally hidden within the masculine, Adam. 

Note, hiddenness does not mean of lesser or greater value, but often a glorious and profound reality or dimension to be revealed to the glory of God as He/She is revealing Himself/Herself to us and us to ourselves. This is not confusion (we don’t need any help with that)—this is the opposite. It is life-giving revelation to all, as we allow Him/Her to transform us in our understanding and ways of being.

When we limit our understanding of God to part of His nature, we inadvertently limit how we see ourselves—and how we relate to one another. But when we recover the fullness of Who God is, something transformative happens:

• Our own identity becomes clearer
• Our relationships become healthier
• Our worship becomes deeper
• We awaken and are unveiled as sons of God, which, in turn releases creation from its bondage
• We are released from lower ways of being and walk in higher levels of freedom and power
• We represent truth of the nature of God that draws all to Him/Her

Because we’re no longer relating to a partial God. We’re communing with more of the Whole.

Made in God’s Full Image: What That Really Means

The Hebrew word for “image” in Genesis 1:27 is tzelem — a term that means a physical or spiritual representation, a visible expression of an invisible reality. When God created humankind in His/Her image, He/She split the atom of Himself/Herself and expressed it through male and female.

Not as fragments. Not as unequal halves. But as equally glorious revelations of His/Her heart.

Eve wasn’t an afterthought. She wasn’t a tolerated addendum. In fact, the language used in Genesis 2:18 to describe her as a “helper suitable” (ezer kenegdo in Hebrew) actually means “one who mirrors and corresponds to” — a word used throughout scripture to describe God Himself/Herself as our Helper!

This means something radical: both male and female reflect the divine. When we see each other rightly, we see God more clearly and we treat one another accordingly. 

We serve a God Who births nations, nurses the weary, broods like a mother, and wraps us in the comfort of a nurturing embrace. We also serve a God who leads with strength, roars like a lion, and fights for the one He/She loves. He/She is not either/or. He/She is the perfect integration of both: the feminine often expressed from the masculine and vice versa.

That means there is no part of you—your strength or your softness, your intuition or your logic, your compassion or your courage—that is un-divine when yielded to Love: we are complete in Him/Her.

God Is Also Mother: Seeing What We’ve Forgotten

For centuries, the maternal heart of God has been hidden beneath cultural bias and theological discomfort. But the Bible is rich with imagery that reveals God’s feminine nature:

Jesus Himself says, 

These are not metaphorical throwaways. They are invitations to encounter the aspects of God we desperately need—but may have never been told we could receive.

Holy Spirit, Whose very name in Hebrew (Ruach) is feminine, is often the nurturing, indwelling Presence many of us associate with comfort, healing, and emotional intimacy. She is the whisper when we are weary. The Advocate Who stays when others walk away. The Breath of Life (Breath, Hebrew feminine noun: nᵊšāmâ) when we feel dead or barren.

When we forget that God is also feminine, we suppress the very characteristics we were designed to carry:

• Our intuition
• Our capacity for nurture
• Our deep emotional sensitivity
• Our fierce protective love

We also risk perpetuating systems of hierarchy, inequality, and disconnection—all because we haven’t seen the full picture of Who God is.

But when we see a more complete picture, we begin to see that God doesn’t just tolerate our complexity. He/She created and rejoices in the holy beauty of it. We are not too much or too tender or too fierce. We are just like our Parent.

And in that revelation, we find freedom.

Healing Our Image of God Heals Our Image of Ourselves

When our picture of God is incomplete, our picture of ourselves is too. And that distortion wounds us in quiet, often unnoticed ways.

If we only see God as male, we begin to prioritize traditionally masculine traits as more spiritual—strength, leadership, logic—and inadvertently diminish traits like tenderness, receptivity, emotion, and empathy. But if both male and female were made in the image of God, then all these qualities are sacred.

For years, I believed God wanted me strong but not soft, wise but not too emotional, bold but not nurturing. I separated strength from sensitivity. And in doing so, I lived fragmented—praising some parts of myself and silencing others.

But when I started to embrace God’s full image—Father and Mother, King and Comforter, Lion and Dove—I began to bless what I used to hide. I gave myself permission to feel deeply, to lead gently, to cry openly, to mother fiercely.

And I began to see others through this healed lens, too.

Our relationships shift when our image of God expands. We begin to recognize the divine in both strength and softness, wisdom and wonder, justice and mercy. We stop judging others by how well they conform to gendered expectations—and instead celebrate the unique way they reveal the heart of God.

Seeing God rightly doesn’t just bring theology into alignment. It brings us into alignment. It heals our shame. It dismantles the lies. It releases us into wholeness.

Because when we see God as He/She truly is, we are finally free to be who we truly are.

There Is No Hierarchy in Love: A Trinity of Mutual Honor

In the beginning, there was no power struggle between male and female—just shared glory. Just co-ruling. Just love.

Hierarchy entered the picture after the fall (Genesis 3:16), not as God’s ideal, but as a consequence of brokenness. God’s original design was mutuality. Partnership. Honor. The image of God is not a ladder—it’s a circle of Love.

Nowhere is that more beautifully modeled than in the Trinity.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in perfect unity—distinct, but equal. No competition. No domination. Only delight in one another. They defer. They honor. They glorify each other in a divine dance of mutual giving. (See my blog about Healing Our Image of the Trinity) 

This is the relational blueprint we were made from—and the one we’re being restored to.

So why do we still tolerate gender-based hierarchies in the church, in marriage, in society? Why do we still act as if leadership is masculine and submission is feminine, when we are called to submit to one another in Love and both are found in Christ?

Jesus submitted to the Father. The Father gave all authority to the Son. The Father sent Holy Spirit in response to the Son’s prayer to lead and guide into all Truth and conform the sons and daughters into the image of Christ. Holy Spirit points to Christ and the finished work of the cross drawing all to Him. And the Son shares His glory with us all. Submission is not weakness—it’s Love in motion. 

Although Holy Spirit, the more overtly feminine of the Godhead is often less highlighted, the Nicene Creed, the bedrock of orthodoxy, states: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified.”

When we embrace this Trinitarian pattern of mutual honor, everything changes:

• Men no longer have to dominate to feel strong or repress emotionality to be masculine
• Women no longer have to diminish to be spiritual, or manipulate to have influence
• We all get to show up fully and in healthy life-giving ways

The Kingdom is not built on control. It’s built on Christ—Who came not to be served, but to serve. Who washed feet. Who welcomed and elevated women. Who gave voice to the silenced.

This isn’t just about gender roles. It’s about restoring the heavenly design where every person—regardless of gender—is honored, included, and empowered to reveal the fullness of God.

Love doesn’t dominate. Love dignifies. And when we live from this kind of Love, we don’t need to fight for our place—we’ve already been given one.

Let the Fullness of Love Make You Whole

This is the invitation, beloved friend: to encounter the God Who is both masculine and feminine. To see your identity reflected in the wholeness of who He/She is. To let Love rewrite your story—starting with how you see God, then how you see yourself, and finally, how you see others.

You don’t need to be less of anything to belong. You don’t need to contort yourself to fit cultural molds. You don’t have to bury your softness or your strength to be spiritual. You were made in the full image of Love—and nothing about you is accidental.

So today, ask yourself:

• Where have I viewed God through a limited lens?
• What parts of myself have I silenced to feel more “acceptable”?
• How is Love calling me back into wholeness?

Let this be a moment of divine restoration. Let God re-parent your heart in the places that have been shamed, silenced, or unseen.

Pray with me:

Papa, Jesus, Holy Spirit—show me the fullness of Who You are. Heal every broken image I’ve held of You, and every distorted image I’ve believed about myself. Let me receive Your love in every part of masculine and feminine, strong and soft, bold and tender. Restore my sight, so I can see myself and others through Your eyes of wholeness. I choose to be made whole in Love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

You were never meant to live half-seen.

You were made to carry the fullness of God.

And you are—right now—deeply, completely, divinely loved.

Love, Catherine Toon