September 23

“When God said in the beginning, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,’ we cannot for a moment suppose that he meant we were to be made in the image and likeness of his body.  He must have meant that we were to be made in the image and likeness of his nature and character.  Neither could he have meant that we were to be created full-fledged in this image, but that we were to be begun, as all adult life is begun, in helpless and ignorant infancy.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, Daily Secrets, 9/14

As a child I could not wait to grow up.  As an adult I could not wait to be wise.  It seems I’ve always wanted things to happen as soon as I think of them.  Even years of having to wait haven’t changed my mindset about this.  Now that I’m nearing the end of my parenting years I have a better understanding of this whole process called life.  We enter it helpless and as we subject ourselves to our loving parents we are formed into productive members of society.  My role as a parent will never end though.  My adult children still call upon me from time to time to answer questions or lend a hand.  My spiritual life isn’t any different.  God, who made me and knows even better what I need than I knew for my children, raises me in His love to become a productive member of His family.  But unlike my parenting skills, God knows exactly what I need and when I should receive it.  As I look to Him only to receive my needs, trusting His timing, I can be assured that I will indeed be conformed to his likeness.

“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”  Colossians 3:10