“To all who received him,
to those who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God”
(John 1:12)
Reflection:
We celebrate our human birthdays, acknowledge our human parents and seek our fulfilment in our human situations.
As understandable as these may be there are however other significant celebrations that are applicable to true believers in Jesus Christ. There is the time of our new birth into the eternal family of God, the moment from which we can in all truth acknowledge and rejoice in God as our Father, and the fulfilment that is ours in our new identity and place in the eternal purposes of God.
If these things are true for believers then they are worth having at the forefront of our thoughts and lives, guiding us in our daily living and in the ways in which we respond to situations. If we persist in thinking of ourselves as everyday humans then we will find that we live like them. When we begin to see ourselves as a son or daughter of God it must begin to colour the way we live.
Christianity is not a cloak of respectability that we put on over our old ways of life – it is a new birth into new relationships and a new way of thinking and living. When God calls us to be holy He is drawing our attention to the fact that we are expected to be different to the world around us. In fact we are to be as different as a light shining in the darkness. This is because He is different, and we are now His children and no longer children of the world.
Response:
What does my life say about me?
Prayer:
Lord help me to reflect You into the world – and not to mirror the world to You. Amen.
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The Soaring Eagle 