Spiritual DNA

…being made in human likeness.  Philippians 2:7

When children are born, parents quickly look for familiar features.  “She has my eyes!  Look, her mouth curves just like Grandpa’s.”  Children are made in the likeness of those whose love created them.  It doesn’t take too many years for us to also recognize that a child has our temper, our strong will, our sensitive spirit, or a bent toward the artistic.

If a DNA test had been done on the baby Jesus, what would it have revealed?  One thing is certain.  Jesus’ spiritual DNA was unlike anyone born before or since.  He was God.  He was perfect.  There were no temper tantrums and no sulking in the corner until he got his way.  Though he might have cried when he scraped his knee, or ached from the loneliness of adolescent rejection, or even felt heartbroken when he chose to overturn tables in a temple that had become commercialized, he never sinned.

We, who have been spiritually adopted into his family, are undergoing a metamorphosis.  We are being fashioned into the likeness of Jesus.  Our insecurities are being healed in His embrace.  Our shame is disappearing beneath the robe he placed around our shoulders.  Tempers are melting in the presence of the One we can trust to rule righteously.

We are learning to cry but not manipulate, feel angry but take no revenge, and ask for others’ companionship without becoming codependent.  Jesus is our brother.  He made His Father ~ our Father.  His royal blood is beginning to course through our veins and change the very nature of who we are.  Our spiritual DNA is transforming us in such a way as to transcend family traits and likenesses.

I want my spiritual adoption to change me in every way.  I want to act, think, and feel more like You.  Amen