There
is a story about a man who, because of a lifetime of hard work, hard
luck, and poor posture, allowed himself to become stooped and round
shouldered. So, he commissioned a sculptor to fashion a statue of
him in a perfectly straight position, with his shoulders back, head
high, and chin up - just the way he looked when he was in the prime
of life.
He received his statue and hid it in a remote corner of his garden.
For several minutes every day he would go to the hiding place and
contemplate himself as he once was, while gazing up at the statue.
As time passed the man's friends noticed he was standing straighter
and regaining his youthful stature. His progress was slow but his
persistence was rewarded until finally he had become like the image
he had crafted.
If we want to be continually transformed into the image of Jesus, we
will need to spend time each day looking at Jesus, contemplating his
person and how we can be like him. The only image of Jesus we have
access to was sculpted by some of his followers. This image begins
to take shape as we read the Old Testament prophecies that told of
His coming. The image takes definite shape as we read the Gospel
accounts.
They
tell us as much as we can comprehend of Him. While we obviously do
not have Jesus' power, we do have access, through prayer, to the
same power source. We can strive to emulate His love, His
compassion, His obedience and gradually we can begin to look like
Him. Finally, "Dear
friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet
been made known. But, we know that when He appears, we shall be like
Him, for we shall see Him
as He is" (1 John 3:2).
[Doug Post]