Looking In the Mirror... and Seeing Jesus
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
“Labor practically to show the world that you are the servant, the friend, the bride of Jesus.” – C.H. Spurgeon
About 20 years ago, Deanna and I took our kids to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. It is a world-class science museum with thousands of exhibits including a 350-ton steam locomotive, a walk-through model of the human heart, and the Fels Planetarium. As you can imagine, there are also multiple hands-on displays about electricity in honor of Ben Franklin, whose 20-foot marble statue dominates the main rotunda.
One of the interactive exhibits allows you to envision what you will look like in 20, 30, or even 40 years. Our son Chris, who was just a teenager at the time, was anxious to try his luck and so, he peered into the camera and voila, there was his future self, looking back at him. The only problem was that the 30-year-older version of Chris looked eerily similar to the then present-day appearance of dear old dad. Poor kid!
Even though Chris’s genetic future was predetermined before he was born, there is another likeness that he and I are both striving to achieve. In Genesis 1:26, God announced that He was going to make man “in Our image, according to our likeness.” That is the first reference to the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
However, Romans 8:29 takes it a step farther. Whereas all people were originally created in God’s image and likeness, true believers are to be “conformed to the image of His Son.” That process is called sanctification.
Someday – and for all eternity – Chris and I will both see Jesus face-to-face. And when we do, hopefully it will be like looking in a mirror, because our hearts’ desire is to resemble our Savior more and more every day.
As Charles Spurgeon put it…
“Never contradict your profession. Be ever one of those whose manners are Christian, whose speech is like Jesus, whose conduct and conversation are so reminiscent of heaven that all who see you may know that you are the Savior's, recognizing in you His features of love and His countenance of holiness.”
“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” I Corinthians 13:12 (NKJV)
- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President
