September 17th Weekly Word

A Revealing Resemblance

“For to me to live is Christ ...” (Philippians 1:21a)

It is often said, half in jest, that couples married for many years begin to resemble one another (see photo above). Whether or not that’s literally true, the point is that a lifetime of companionship brings a coalescence between the two in terms of habits, values, dispositions, etc.

And it makes sense. The Bible even tells us in Genesis that a man and his wife “shall become one flesh.” Paul references this passage while writing to the Ephesian church about marriage and says that it also correlates to Christ and the Church. So God intends for his people to experience a oneness with Jesus comparable to the bond of a married couple.

Now our union with Christ, in one respect, is a done deal. Like the covenant of marriage, it is an objective joining — it happened when we professed faith, and it was ratified through our baptism. We are truly and definitively joined to him.

But on the other hand, as in marriage, unity and oneness are lived out and deepened over the course of a life spent together. And that’s the key — time together.

Friends, do you want to be like Jesus? Do you want to be able to say with Paul, to live is Christ?
If so, spend time with the Lord – time reading about him in Scriptures, talking to him in prayers, pondering him in silence, calling out to him in trouble, meditating on him at night, worshipping him at church, partaking of him in the sacrament, experiencing him through Christian community.
Because when our daily rhythms flow through Christ, growing union with him is inevitable. And when that happens, reflecting him to the world becomes the natural overflow of our being.

If you desire such a connection with the Lord, start by praying this simple prayer with me this week.

Heavenly Father, may my time with Christ conform me to his image so that my life may reveal him to the world.

Darin+