“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 in a living museum, was the classroom assignment once given to my granddaughter’s class at her school. Every student was to choose a famous character in history, pretend to become that person and then present their life story to the class.
The students made their own posters displaying quotes made by the famous person who they were representing. Each student had to conclude with a speech to explain what their life was about, as if they were temporarily changed into that person who they chose to represent.
My granddaughter Emery, chose Anne Frank, the teenage girl who kept a diary while hiding from the Nazis during WW2. Although her life sadly ended like millions of other Holocaust victims, her diary was later found in an Amsterdam attic, and published for all to read.
Anne Frank’s legacy was in her diary, which has kept her alive to this day. For eighty years, people have been inspired by the depth of her writing, for her young age. She expressed through her words an attitude of kindness, gratitude and hope, even though she lived during one of the worst times in history. Anne Frank was Jewish, but she had a natural grasp of one basic principle of Christianity, that good overcomes all evil.
(Romans 12:21)
Emery completed her assignment of personifying Anne Frank by telling her story to the classroom, displaying posters with quotes from her diary, stimulating a good classroom discussion.
As I thought about this kind of class project, I realized that we all share a similar assignment during our lives, except the person we represent is Jesus. Instead of making posters filled with His quotes, we are becoming living posters, who exemplify all that He taught, and hopefully will inspire others to think about Him.
The more we surrender ourselves to Jesus, the more He is changing us into His likeness, “by one degree of glory at a time”, as today’s scripture describes.
The assignment in our school of life, is to develop character more than to gain textbook knowledge. There is a due date for everyone’s assignment, though it varies from person to person. When we meet the Lord one day, He will let us know how well we did in a lifelong assignment of representing Him.
A new year brings opportunities to be further transformed into living posters of Jesus Christ. His Spirit within us, helps us to light up the lives of others. As living posters, we are spreading an aura of living hope to everyone around us. Our greatest hope is to one day hear:
“Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
Lord, may we all light up the darkness, by becoming living posters of you, that inspire others to put their faith and hope in you. Amen
