Like Jesus
Every time you look in the mirror, you see a reflection of yourself. I have found mirrors don’t lie, just like weight scales. Every blemish is there. You can’t wish them away. Some people spend a lot more time looking at themselves than seems necessary. I don’t like to linger as, at 83, there is just too much that is not right. But look we shall.
We attended a funeral last week of Jill McPherson’s mother, a nurse for many years. She was 82 when she passed into the arms of Jesus and there was no question on anyone’s mind that she was safely home with her Savior and Lord. But one thing was interesting, something I had never heard before at a funeral service. The comparison of Jesus while he was on earth to the person being eulogized. I won’t go into detail, but the five similarities the pastor highlighted were these. Love for and service to the needy, dependence on prayer, genealogy, the outdoors, and family.
Sanctification
We know that once we have been justified by grace through faith, we enter into the period of sanctification wherein God’s purpose is to make you into the image and likeness of Jesus. I came away from the service saying, God did a mighty work in and through her. She was being compared, in many ways, to the likeness of her Lord and Savior. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification (holiness)” (I Thess. 4.3a).
This is the will of God, that we grow into the likeness of his Son. Paul tells us; “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3.17). We read that when Moses would be in the presence of God in the tabernacle, he would have to wear a veil as the people could not look upon him. They were seeing the face of God.
Who are you reflecting?
Jill’s mom reflected Jesus in many ways, and when people were with her, they were seeing the image of Christ. By her words, prayers, service, actions, teachings, and I am sure, much more. Her husband and three daughters praised her for who she was and had become. Do you know others like her? Are you, am I, reflecting the glory of Christ in us? What will they say at our funerals?
Maybe it is time for us to take a hard look at ourselves in the mirror of the word of God. That reveals the true person we have become or are becoming. Maybe we all need to work on those blemishes. I know I do; how about you? And if you know Jill, you will agree that she’s got a lot of her mother and Jesus in her too.
