In order to prove my identity I had to visit my solicitor recently. I took with me my driving licence and my passport. Someone photocopied these and then stamped them with the firm's name and address and signed them as "certified copies of the originals". In other words, the images they bore of me were true copies and the details that went with the photos were accurate information. I think the reason for this was to ensure that I was not money laundering. But it made me think whether I am bearing a true likeness of Jesus. Am I a certifiable copy of him?
In his hymn, "O for a heart to praise my God", Charles Wesley uses this idea in the fourth verse.
O for a heart to praise my God,
a heart from sin set free;
a heart that's sprinkled with the blood
so freely shed for me:
2 A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
my great Redeemer's throne;
where only Christ is heard to speak,
where Jesus reigns alone:
3 A humble, lowly, contrite heart,
believing, true, and clean,
which neither life nor death can part
from him that dwells within:
4 A heart in every thought renewed,
and full of love divine;
perfect and right and pure and good —
a copy, Lord, of thine.
5 Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart,
come quickly from above;
write thy new name upon my heart,
thy new best name of Love.
Whether we like it or not, as we get older people start to see our parents in our faces. As our walk with God grows ever closer, people should be able to see the likeness of Jesus in how we live and hear it in how we speak.
This is what the Bible means when it speaks about our being changed in 2 Corinthians 3:18: "And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
When I look in a mirror I can see my parents in the face looking back at me. How much more ought we to want to be like Jesus.
Barry Osborne