Children of God

I've always picture John, sitting at his writing desk, coming to what we know as chapter 3, and he's writing along, great theology, when suddenly it hits him, as it does we preachers sometimes. "Wow! That's great stuff!" Sometimes, in spite of ourselves, we happen to say something profound. That seems to be what happens to John here. "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" And that's when it hits him: "And that is what we are!" No matter what our parentage, no matter what others say about us, no matter even what we think of ourselves--none of that can change the reality that, if you have welcomed Jesus into your life, you are child of God. And nothing else ultimately matters.

But if we are children, then we are called to grow up in him. When our children are born, we might begin to imagine what they will become, what they will look like when they grow up, what they might do with their lives, even who they might marry. From the moment we find out we're going to be parents, we begin to have hopes and dreams for our children. But we don't really know if those dreams will become a reality until the children actually do grow up.

And so John says, "Now we are children of God." That's the third time in two verses he has said this. It's really stunning to him--right now, not someday, but right now, we ARE children of God. Then he goes on, "What we will be has not yet been revealed." Just like when anyone is a child, it's not yet clear what we will grow up into. Some of that depends on us and the choices we make to grow closer to Christ or to move further away. And yet, John knows this to be true: "When Christ appears, we shall be like him." We are growing more and more into the image of Jesus, if we put our hope in him.

It used to freak me out when I noticed myself doing or saying things the way my mom or dad would say them. I've sort of gotten used to it, especially as I've had children of my own and see my own characteristics in them. But what gets me excited is when I begin to see the character of Christ growing in me. It's much more of a slow growth, and one that takes more effort, time and intentionality, but I can look back and see, by the grace of God, that I'm more like him today than I was last year at this time. And by that same grace, I'll be even more like him next year at this time. Because I am a child of God. And so are you, if you've put your hope in him.