Imago Dei

I talked to my grandmother, my Nanny, on the phone today.

*cue “aawws”, warm-fuzzies, and all things inherently good and wonderful*

She told me a story and it made me laugh and think:

My Nanny stood in the check-out line at a store and the cashier looked remarkably like me. Nanny explained this to the cashier, how extraordinary the resemblance is between her youngest granddaughter and this cashier. My Nanny said the cashier had my long, brown, curly hair, my big eyes, and even my smile! She described how the cashier sounds similar to me. She went as far as telling this cashier that to look like her granddaughter is a compliment because I am beautiful (at this point I laugh over the phone and says “thanks, Nanny”). My Nanny continues her story with how she told this cashier, this stranger, that she really wants to hug her because it would be like hugging her granddaughter–to which the cashier obliges and gives her a hug! Nanny finishes the story by saying that she misses me, her encounter with the cashier causing her to miss me more, yet bring her joy at the same time.

This made me think…

There is a correlation between my Nanny’s interaction with this cashier and interactions with followers of Jesus.

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us…By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit (1 John 4:9-13).”

To my Nanny, this cashier is a mirror of me–someone she loves and misses and has a relationship with. The hair, the eyes, the smile, the voice of this cashier, from my Nanny’s perspective, attributed to me in a way only those who know me would understand; however, the specific meaning these similarities had to my Nanny wouldn’t make much of a difference to any other person.

As a follower of Jesus I am called to mirror Him in the same way. In the way I love, forgive, speak, act, pray, live. When other children of God interact with me, they should see a reflection of Him–His love, His forgiveness, His words, His actions, His life.

Someone who is in a relationship with Jesus can recognize His characteristics all over the place, especially in other people, just like my Nanny recognized my characteristics in the cashier.

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (Romans 8:29).”

Since this stands true, my call to mirror Christ is a serious one that takes self-control, grace, devotion, and investment in conforming to His image. I desire to glorify Jesus in more than my Sunday mornings. I long for every word, every action, the very way I carry myself, to emulate Him.

“Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed (Psalm 34:5).”

What’s even more striking to me, is how my Nanny saw the same beauty in me and the cashier. (Although slightly biased in her opinion of me), my Nanny immediately made a connection between her youngest granddaughter and this stranger. She said so with a confidence that comes from having the traits, [the beauty she sees in me], memorized in such a way that is unmistakable to her portrayed in anyone else.

I want to memorize the image of Jesus so that He is glorified in the highest in me. Not only so that His other children can see Him mirrored in me, but also that the indwelling of Christ in me is accurately lived out for those who don’t know Him.

“…that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith–that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3: 16-19, emphasis mine).” 

#Family #Life