What Image do we reflect to the World? by Linden Malki

Reflections attract our attention; we are drawn to an image of ourselves and almost always stop a moment and check out the image.   What do we see in our image?  We normally look for mussed hair and clothes; for unwanted spots and stains on our clothes and face, the shapes of our face and bodies, and how closely the image we see matches the image in our head and memory.

The image that we see usually shows more than we expect, and often more than we want. Even if our faces and bodies give away very little about us, that in itself shows that we are closed off and very possibly hiding our true selves.  We can tell if we look stressed, confident, worried, afraid. clueless, happy, naive, serious, miserable, silly and more--and all these are noticeable on most facial structures. People tend to react to us depending on these expressions, and their judgments and expectations go along with it.

It's not surprising that Jesus was recognized as someone special, based on his attitude and spirit; after interviewing Jesus even Pilate, known for his authoritarian attitude, ordered the placard on the cross to read "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews."  Even on the cross in his last minutes, Jesus is described by a hardbitten Roman soldier as "Surely this is a righteous man."  We read in Acts 6 and 7 that Stephen, speaking to mobs who were ready to kill him, is described as seeing Stephen's face  "as like the face of an angel", and as the rocks were flying, they saw Stephen looking up into heaven and seeing the Glory of God.  Back in Exodus, Moses is described as having a face that reflected the glory of God.

Over the years, the church has been blessed with men and women who have been recognized as showing a  strong relationship with God. There may have been people we have known who have looked and acted differently than the average human being. As Christ-followers, we are called and have available a special relationship with God through Jesus, the ability to relate through the Spirit with each other, and to live in harmony in this world as well as the next.  We should be recognizeable as His people, with His Spirit, living on a level that is noticeably different from those who do not know God.