The Spitting Image of You

A Reflection on the Second Reading for November 1st, 2020:
The Solemnity of All Saints

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1 John
3.1-3

Beloved: See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

And all who have this hope in God purify themselves, just as he is pure.
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Pause. Pray.

And then read more...

A carbon copy. A dead ringer. A chip off the old block. The spitting image.


People love to observe how strongly children resemble their parents.


When my niece walks across a room, the way she carries herself reminds me instantly of her mother. As a young boy, my brother’s son looked just as his father and his grandfather did at a similar age. My own daughter’s singing voice sounds so much like my own that even I have noticed it. Children take after their parents in their mannerisms, their looks, their voice, and so on.


“Children of God”
In chapter 3 of the first letter of John, we are invited to examine carefully and appreciate fully what it means to be children of God. In His boundless love, God has “lavished” the gift of family upon any and all who receive Jesus and believe in His name (John 1:12). These receivers and believers are called children of God – not mentees of God, not wards of God, but children of God. So I ask myself, do I take after God?


“The World Does Not Know Us Because It Did Not Know Him”
If I am a child of God, then what I value should resemble what God values and not what the world values. My ways should resemble God’s ways, which differ from the ways of the world. Wealth, popularity, and comfort cannot be the reasons I get out of bed in the morning. I must be ambitious for the “higher gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31): eloquence, prophecy, understanding, faith, giving, and (most important of all) love.


Sometimes it’s a struggle. My ways often have too much of me in them, and not enough of God. But I can always turn back to scripture to remind myself that as God’s child, I am loved and protected. I am empowered to love others as Jesus loved others. I am motivated to know God and love God through the person of Jesus. If I allow Jesus to shape my attitudes and my conduct according to God’s ways, I will “be like Him.”


“As He Is Pure”
Jesus says in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). If I hope to be like Jesus, if I hope to see God, I must strive to be pure “just as He is pure.”


Father, I receive Your Son Jesus and believe in His name. Thank you for lavishing Your love on me and embracing me as Your child.

May Your values be my values,
May I love as You love,
May I take after You,
May You shape me and whittle me until the day I become the spitting image of You.




Donna Davis

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