Family Resemblance

“God had Christ, who was sinless,

take our sin

so that we might receive God’s approval

through him.”

2 Cor. 5:21

Have you ever met a child or close relative of someone who is/was dear to you, and instantly recognize your dear one in the face of the stranger before you?   When that has happened to me, there is an almost automatic affinity that I feel towards them.  Without even knowing this new person, I immediately am reminded of the person with whom I’d had a relationship, including the emotional joy or delight or sweet reminders of their relative.

It’s a frail human example of what may hint at God’s response when he looks at one of His earthly creations…..anyone who has chosen a personal relationship with Jesus, and God sees His Dearly Beloved’s face in ours. What a thought!  Does His Heart leap in joy…love…delight when He recognizes Jesus in us?

Though we have fallen so far short of who we were created to be, so frail in our earthly, human condition, God’s desire and love for us never changes.  Encountering Jesus, and choosing to walk with Him throughout our days, changes us . . . and changes the way God sees us.  No matter the mud we’ve been splattered with, the darkness we’ve lived with, the dust and rust that has settled on and in us, and the brokenness we carry, our sinless Jesus draws us to Himself.  He dusts us off, washes away the mud, gives us brand new clothes, transforming us inside and out.  And we begin to look like Him.

In the desert, in my early years of being among the people there, the few of us who would come were the first Jesus Followers they had met.   One day, a beautiful young woman who was sitting beside me noticed that the room had cleared of any other people.  It was just the two of us.  She leaned in, and in a hushed voice whispered, “Do you know Jesus?”  I wasn’t sure if this was some sort of “trap” or not, but I nodded in response.  Her eyes immediately lit up, and she whispered, “Tell me!”   What followed was a life-altering hour of telling her stories of Jesus, and of how He had become the most important relationship in my life. How did she know?  Family resemblance, I believe.  Over the years this has happened time and time again. If God has put His thumbprint on every soul He created, it should be no surprise that people can sense that Spirit in one of His Family, even if they don’t know what it is. 

Through the miraculous transformation that only Jesus can bring about in our lives, we begin to reflect Him in the way we live out our days on this earth. We need to hold tightly to His Hand, walk closely, listen carefully, talk with Him daily, and allow His transforming Presence to continue to change us to be more and more like Him.

May the Family resemblance become so evident that we can respond in delight when it is noted by another.  Especially by our Father.