23 Aug Your Son Looks Just Like You
“Your son looks just like you.”
I don’t know why that phrase stirs up such feelings of joy and pride in me. Maybe it’s because my firstborn (daughter) is usually referred to as my wife’s mini-me (and good for her because my wife is the standard of beauty as far as I’m concerned), or maybe it’s because I’m just pathetically competitive enough to want to win in the “my kids look like me” score column (Of course Melissa is crushing me there too. Even our youngest, who is adopted, is the spitting image of my wife’s baby pictures). It could be either. It’s probably both. But, I also believe, and this is not just my poor attempt at justifying my failure to have a more dominant DNA, that there is a more theological reason behind the dad-pride I feel when I hear someone say my children look like me.
I believe it is that part of God’s heart that has been woven into the DNA of every human being. From the beginning, God’s desire has been for His children to resemble Him. “Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness,” Genesis 1 pulls back the curtain of eternity to give us a glimpse at what it looked like when God’s heart overflowed into creation. Our Triune God, our God who is Love (1 John 4:8), Father-Son-Spirit, knelt down and fastened from the dirt His Magnum Opus. God formed humanity, in His own image, with the desire that as we looked at each other the phrase that would spring from our lips would be, “You look just like your Father.”
Then, God rested. His masterpiece was finished. Or was it? As the history goes, God saw that it was not good for man to be alone. God saw that Adam could never truly resemble Father-Son-Spirit as a single, isolated individual. Adam needed someone who was like him (human), yet not like him (female) to accurately resemble His Trinitarian nature, Father-Son-Spirit, each equally God, yet each different in His personhood. So, along came Eve.
And to this day, God still desires that we, His children, would resemble Him to the rest of creation. He still desires that others would look at us and say, “You look just like your Father.” He still desires that we not isolate ourelves and try to “go it alone” in our humanity. He still desires that the love that overflowed from His heart in the moment of our creation would continue to flow through our hearts in moments of new creation.
God made us from the love, but He also made us For the Love. And we need one another to fufill that purpose.
In response to that reality, I want to invite you all to participate in our For the Love campaign. I’m asking us all to not just be content with hearing God’s Word on a Sunday, but to take that next step into doing God’s Word throughout the rest of the week. To help you do that we are asking every member and attendee of Mosaic to do three things:
- Connect to a Community Group in August. We have groups all over the city that are all lead by some pretty amazing people. Check out our Community Group Directory and fill out the online interest form to let me know what groups you’re interested in. I’ll help you get connected from there.
- Attend weekly gatherings in September. Once you are connected to a group I’m asking you to commit to 5 consecutive weeks of group gatherings. This will enable you to build relationships with one another, pray for one another, and encourage one another as together we grow into a more accurate resemblance of our Father.
- Perform a group service project in October. Following the consecutive get togethers your group will plan and execute some kind of project that will provide a practical example of what the love of God looks like to our neighbors and our city.
Meet new people. Make new friends. Help someone in need. What’s not to like about that?
The answer is nothing. Nothing is not to like. It’s an amazing opportunity, an opportunity to not only be part of something great with people that are great, but to jump into the rhythm of God’s heart and walk in your designed purpose. It’s an opportunity to “be conformed to the image of Christ” who looks exactly like our Father. I know schedules are tight and time is precious, but what else ought we to make time for if not the pursuit of what God has made us to be? I promise you, at the end of this you will look back and be so glad that you were a part of these next two months.
Now, excuse me as I take my other son to get his haircut just like mine…take that Melissa!
Sincerely,
Brett