Then Jesus declared, “I am the
bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in
me will never be thirsty.
(John 6:35)
When Jesus
spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of
life.” (John 8:12)
“Very truly I tell
you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58)
One of the problems is, of course, that we don’t tend to
know who are or what we are. The story of the ugly duckling comes to mind, but
it would work equally if we told the story of the ugly cygnet. When we
misidentify ourselves or are misidentified by others, we end up as a parody of
what we think we are or are supposed to be.
I keep hearing that we think too lowly of ourselves. People
point out that we are more than conquerors, that we are the daughters/sons of
the Lion of Judah, the daughter/son of the king, co-heirs with Christ, victors,
etc. Those things are true, but what does conquering mean to God? What does
being a lion cub or prince(ss) entail? Jesus knew Himself to be the Son of God,
the Messiah. He was not afraid to speak up or to take a stand, but part of being
someone’s child is a general lack of the need to prove it to them or to anyone
else.
A second problem is time compression. We are not yet what we
will be. We are the children of the Lion
of Judah, but it takes time to learn what that means. We say “Hurry up!” and God says, “Not yet.”
Who we are is important. I keep thinking that the key is not who we are, or what we are, but whose we are. Are we really convinced that what we declare to be real is really real? After that, are we content to actually be who we are or are we seeking someone else's glory?
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