A little girl, on the way home from church, turned to her mother, "Mommy, the preacher's sermon this morning confused me."
The mother said, "Oh! Why is that?”
“Well,” she replied, “He said that God is bigger than we are. He also said that God lives within us. Is all that true?"
“Yes,” the mother replied.
"Well," said the girl. "If God is bigger than we are and he lives in us, wouldn't he show through?"
The kid was onto something! Following Jesus is about being changed so that God does show through in us. We “are being transformed into his likeness” Paul insists (2 Corinthians 3:18). Simple statement; profound truth.
I have been fortunate enough to know people in whom God’s likeness showed through. I caught a glimpse of God in friends who came to our house to finish painting the nursery while my wife and I were at the hospital for the birth of our first child. I saw a bit of God in the man who mowed my lawn one day because, “I just wanted to do something for you.” I’ve seen God’s likeness in those who helped tend to my parents during their illnesses and who reached out to comfort my family when my parents died.
I see God showing through when teens pool their meager funds to make sure a friend has money to participate in an outing. I see God reflected in a man who recently spent the entire night at the hospital sitting with a friend whose relative had been in an auto accident.
I’m blessed to see a little of God in people all around me almost every day. Perhaps the bigger question for me is: does God show through in me?
A kindergarten teacher was observing her students while they drew. She walked around to see each child's artwork. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.
The girl replied, "I'm drawing God."
The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like."
Without missing a beat or looking up, the girl replied, "They will when I’m finished."
Living so that the likeness of God shows through is not really complicated. Drawing his image with our lives can be done in hundreds of simple ways. Look, today, for God’s likeness in others and let them see him showing through you.