We are changed into the image we reflect

"Purified Lips" by Grace Carol Bomer

The following is the tail end of a post entitled Formal… but here to party by Andrew Mills at his blog Metanoia. I recommend that you take a look at his post in its entirety, but I'm warning you, it starts out differently than you might have guessed, it tears off a few false faces, but it ends up here, with these closing paragraphs...

So what does it mean to be “real”? From the Christian perspective we have to look at what Jesus said. And what Jesus said is telling. The last thing he said to the apostles before ascending into heaven is a powerful clue as to what he thought it meant to be a fully realized human. He said, “By this will all men know that you are mine, and that I was sent by the Father; if you have love for one another.” And likewise, when he was asked the most important law for humans to follow he summed it all up with “Love God, and love each other.”

Some of us see God as angry, powerful, and distant. Some see him as an ooey gooey spirit that hasn’t got a personality, and is there when I want to be thankful, but doesn’t care when I want to be a bit shady. Some see Jesus as a “warrior with a sword in hand and a tattoo down his leg.” I tend to see Jesus as a subversive hippie prophet, teaching Love and “smash the state.”

Some like to think of Jesus in a tuxedo t-shirt. That says, “I’m formal, but I’m here to party.”

But maybe if we’re missing God in our real life, it’s because we’re looking for the wrong things. Maybe we miss God because he’s got dirt under his nails. Maybe we miss him because he’s sitting down and hugging the neck of someone we find repulsive.

Do I miss part of God because he’s sitting down with a conservative business man in a freshly pressed suit?

Do some miss part of God because he’s whispering their name from a moss covered tree in the middle of the woods?

Maybe if we miss him, we miss him because we keep reaching up trying to grasp someone who has come down here among us. You find what you look for. Seek and keep seeking and you will find. But I guarantee you that what you find will surprise you.

— Andrew Mills