Born to Mirror God
A little girl had taken a few excuse notes to school during the course of her first grade year. Some of them explained absences and others asked that she be excused from certain activities. Each time, her mother would explain to her the purpose of the note and remind her to give it to her teacher.
One day the school called and explained that they needed a copy of the little girl’s birth certificate. Her mother hesitated to send it with her daughter, but finally decided to do it anyway. She explained to her little first grader: “This paper explains who you are, what family you belong to and the day that you were born. Give it to your teacher as soon as you go in the room. Be sure not to lose it.”
But as little folks sometimes do, she did lose it, and she was panic stricken. Her teacher saw her crying, and asked what was wrong. The little girl replied: “I just lost my excuse for being born!”
Well, that would seem like a real tragedy for a little one – to have no excuse for being born.
As we grow up, of course, we realize we don’t need an excuse for our existence. The Bible says that humans are made in the image of God—that God made us to reflect him in the world.
But God is invisible, so how are we to reflect someone we can’t even see?
For example, a mirror “images” things by reflecting a likeness of what is in its field of view. (Joe holds up a small mirror to demonstrate.) Like this. But a mirror can’t reflect, or image, what it can’t ‘see’. It has to be positioned correctly to catch the image of what you want it to reflect.
The same is true of us. If we are to reflect the image of God, how are we to see it or know what it is?
The answer is, we see what we need to reflect by looking at the life and example of Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:15 tells us that Jesus is the “image of the invisible God.”
That does not mean that Jesus literally looked like God the Father, who is invisible – but that by the way he lived while he was with us on earth, he showed us a perfect reflection of God.
You could say that Jesus “mirrored,” in the flesh, the life of God. When we look at Jesus, we see what God is like.
So the way for us to reflect, or “image” God, is to keep our lives focused on Jesus.
In Romans 13:14, Paul taught Christians to “clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Rom 13:14)
“Clothe yourselves with Jesus Christ” is an interesting way to put it. The term Paul used for “clothe” is a Greek word that describes how an actor puts on the costume of his character. When the actor puts on the character’s costume, the audience accepts that the actor is a true representative, or image, of the character, even if he does not literally look like the character he is representing.
When our lives “image” God through the example of Jesus we don’t need to worry about not having an excuse to be born. We have a reason – we are made in the image of God to reflect his love and his glory.
I’m Joseph Tkach – speaking of life.
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