One of the fun things about Facebook is seeing pictures of kids, especially pictures of kids whose parents you knew when they were children. It’s enjoyable to see eyes and smiles on the faces of children that look exactly like eyes and smiles from twenty or thirty years ago.
What makes children resemble their parents so much? That is not a hard question to answer. Let’s summarize it in this way: “When children look like their parents on the inside, they’ll look like their parents on the outside.”
The genetic makeup of children comes directly from their parents. The DNA code for the hair color, the eye color, the facial features, etc. all come from the father and the mother. A child’s DNA on the inside is what determines how they look on the outside. That is why they look like their parents.
Of course, that works in another way, as well. The behavior of a child (on the outside) is a direct resemblance of how that child looks on the inside. If a child is insecure on the inside, it will show on the outside. If a child “full of himself” on the inside, it will show on the outside. As parents, we have a direct responsibility for and influence on the molding of hearts (the inside) and behaviors (the outside).
Let’s make a broader and more significant application of this principle. If a human’s outward characteristics are a reflection of inward genetic qualities, where do a Christian’s outward characteristics originate? If you see a Christian who is humble, servant-hearted and eager to do good unto others, is that not a reflection of an inward “genetic code”? If you see a Christian who is sacrificial, selfless and profusely generous with time, abilities and finances, is that not an outward manifestation of an inward condition?
Consider the Scriptural perspective on this. Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20). The fact that Christ is “in me” directly affects how I live “on the outside.” Again in Second Corinthians 3:18 — “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” When a Christian makes it his habit to continually behold the glory of the Lord (by continually putting the Spirit/Word of the Lord inside him), he will be transformed into the image of the Lord “on the outside.”
When the world looks at you, do they see the “family resemblance”? Do they see your Father in you? Do they see your Older Brother in you? Who do you look like?