Who Do You See in the Mirror?

Peel back the layers of your citizenship, ethnicity, heritage, status, and wealth. Who, really, are you?

This is one of the deepest questions you can ask!

Your answer tells you, first, where you have come from, and, second, where you are headed.

“I am Chinese,” a friend tells me on arriving in this country, “but I am becoming a Canadian!” He mixes categories, but do you see the pattern? He knows where he has come from and what he is becoming. 

The Bible answers this deep question about identity for those who are in Christ. First, it tells us that we were lost sinners, living under the authority of darkness and headed toward a bad end. But that “old self,” wounded and shameful, is being left behind. We are no longer who we once were!

Then, although we are not yet all we will be, it then tells us where we are headed. We have a “new self” that is being renewed in the image of our Creator. Amazing!

C. S. Lewis once said: “Our whole destiny seems to lie ... in becoming as little as possible ourselves, in acquiring a fragrance that is not our own but borrowed, in becoming clean mirrors filled with the image of a face that is not our own.” 

Never forget who you are, we may tell someone. Yes, but even more let us never forget who we are becoming.

One day, we will bear the likeness of Christ Himself, and this becomes the great story of our life!

Father, I long for your renewing work in my life. I submit to your good hand. Shape me today and tomorrow more closely into the image of your Son. Amen. 

Throughout this Day: Identify at least one concrete thing you can do today to become more like Jesus. Something you can do? Something you can say? Something you can change?