“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18 (RSV)
To become a historical character as a part of a living museum, was the classroom assignment given to my granddaughter’s 5th grade class. The students were to choose any famous character in history, become that person and present the life story of that person to their class. They made their own posters displaying the famous quotes by their person, and concluded with a final speech explaining who they are and what happened in their life. It was as if each student was briefly changed into the likeness of the person they chose to represent.
My granddaughter chose Anne Frank, the Jewish teenage girl who kept a diary while hiding from the Nazis during the Holocaust. Her young life sadly ended along with millions of others, but her diary was found and published for all to read. Emery, my granddaughter, represented her character by telling Anne Frank’s story in the first person and made posters displaying quotes from her diary. It was an interesting classroom assignment and I was proud of the great job she did.
In thinking about a project like this, I realized we are all working on a similar project throughout our lives, except the person we represent is Jesus. Our goal is to be transformed into His likeness, one degree at a time. Instead of making posters with His famous quotes, we are living posters of what Jesus taught and lived. We don’t have to pretend to be someone we aren’t, because the Holy Spirit is genuinely changing us into His likeness, as Paul writes, from one degree to another. It’s like a life long classroom project, in a different kind of school, one that develops the character of saints, instead of simply accruing knowledge. We are all reflecting Jesus to the people we encounter as we tell His story, and become more like Him over our lifetime. The due date for this assignment is different from person to person. Our project due date is unknown because it’s the day we will each be called home to meet the Lord, when He tells us how well we did in representing Him. Unlike the fifth graders who did their own hard work on their projects, we are receiving help with ours, because we could never do it in our own strength. God wouldn’t call us to do or be something without empowering us with the ability to achieve it. Jesus left us a helper, the Holy Spirit, who is patiently working to renew and change us one degree at a time into the likeness of Jesus. We have only one lifetime to get our project done right, to meet our due date and hear Jesus say “Well done, good and faithful servant.” It’s the goal of every believer in the classroom of Life 101.
Lord, remove anything that veils us from seeing how your glory is working in our lives and continue to mold us into your likeness, by transforming us one degree at a time. Amen