"He also predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son."
My eye and mind usually gravitate to the word "predestined" in this verse, probably because so many Christians get hung up on it. But not today. The words "conformed" and "image" of His Son" are what jump out at me. Think about it; Jesus, the perfect man, holy, righteous altogether, abounding in love, the only begotton of the Father (cf. John 1:18). I'm being conformed, transformed (cf. Romans 12:1, 2) into that likeness. Astonishing!!! While the journey through this short life is breaking down my earthly frame, the renovation of my spiritual frame is taking shape and looking more and more like the One who wasn't created, but always was. A humbling thing, to state the least.
Transformations don't happen overnight. They're gradual, slow, and sometimes painstaking. When I'm with my children all the time and see them almost everyday, it's difficult for me to see the progress of their physical growth from one day to the next. But when someone enters my home who hasn't been around my children for a long time, upon seeing them will often say, "My, how much you've grown!". So it is as a Christian; if I reflect only upon yesterday, I'm prone to discouragement at the minuscule progress of my transformation, but if I look way back to my infancy in Christ, I see tremendous growth. That's not me, that's Him. Notice that He "predestined" (determined) that I conform into the image of His Son. I didn't predestine that.
"Thank you, Lord."
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