The Assembly Line

The Assembly Line But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Corinthians 3 v 18 Man is made in the image of God. We are expected to be the mirror image of God. We are far from being God but we are the mirror image of God. Sin and ignorance distorted that image. But when we believe in Christ we become new creatures. We are renewed in our spirits, day by day even as our old man perishes day by day. The veil which prevented people from looking into the Holy of Holies in the temple at Jerusalem was torn from top to bottom when Jesus died on the cross. We can now look at the Triune God with unveiled faces. Our views are unobstructed. Each day when we look into scripture, we see the image of God to which we must conform in different aspects of our lives. Scripture is like a mirror that gives us a clear picture of our faults and failings even as our warts and facial marks are seen in a mirror. Our spirits are the image of God and should reflect the beauty, power, majesty and glory of God. Our minds are the image of God and should reflect the beauty, power, majesty, grace and glory of God. Our bodies are the image of God and should reflect the beauty, harmony, strength, power, grace and glory of God. If we do not get a feedback on how similar or how different we look compared with Christ, the first born Son of God and do our best to take practical steps to improve in our goodness, knowledge, self control, patience, humility, kindness and love, then we are like a blind man who looks into a mirror. Every day and every time we look into the spiritual mirror, we need to take away a learning point and a point for specific application. Day by day and little by little, our intellectual, emotional and spiritual resemblance to Christ needs to increase. God is not interested in taking us through a crash course to groom us to look and behave like Christ. He works on us patiently over a whole lifetime as He did with the apostles of Christ. It is like a long assembly line- the assembly of God: a part needs to be replaced, a nut needs to be tightened, another part needs to be polished, another washed, brushed and cleaned. The end product should be finished, complete and perfected. The Holy Spirit scans every part of our lives and will quicken it to our minds and spirits where we need to do a bit more or a lot more. He is responsible for quality control and He takes His job very seriously to ensure six sigma or zero defect compliance. He knows that is a tall order given our frailties, fragility and vulnerabilities but He applies a lot of grace to cover up the gaps just as a factory engineer would apply grease over any cracks. Prateep V Philip