Meet Your Maker

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I’m not sure of the first time I heard the phrase, Meet Your Maker; maybe some old cowboy movie, “Prepare to meet your maker Billy Ray!” or perhaps a friend riding in my car, “Slow down, I’m not ready to meet my maker today!” or maybe it was some preacher from the past, “One day, we will all meet our maker.” Regardless, this expression has been around a long time. For Christians, it is a part of our basic beliefs that, after death, we all return to God to be judged by our creator, our maker.

But there is more to meeting our maker than just that moment of our last breath. We can meet Him right now, right where you live! We’re invited to come close and meet our maker each and every day. The more we get to know Him, the more we will begin to imitate Him.

We get the privilege of modeling our maker to the people around us. We get to show others God’s love and grace and joy and forgiveness. We mirror our maker. After all, we’re made in His image.

My three-year-old granddaughter has started walking around spitting. Not at anyone, just on the ground. According to her mother, my daughter, it was something she saw me doing and started imitating me. You could say she is the spitting image of me (when you read this, know that I’m still giggling).

We are constantly in danger of letting the world define our image instead of God. It is only natural to shape our self-image by the attitudes and opinions of our parents, our peer groups and our society. But what is natural is not always healthy. It is only when we define ourselves by the truths of God’s Word rather than the thinking and experiences of the world that we can discover the identity our maker dreamed for us. God wants us to look like Him.

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a short story called “The Great Stone Face.” The story is about a mountain overlooking a village, and on this mountain within the rock formations was a clearly defined stone face of a kind old man. Legend has it that one day a man with that face would come and visit the village and he would be a wonderful blessing to all the villagers.
A boy named Ernest heard that legend, loved the story, and longed for that man to come soon. The boy would gaze continually upon that great stone face, studying its contours and contemplating all the ways that man could bring a blessing to that village.

 

As Ernest grew older, he often would take long walks out to the great stone face and just sit and gaze at it. It was a daily practice for Ernest to spend time at the Great Stone Face. Ernest became more and more well-known for his kindness and love for the village he was a part of, and he became known for his wisdom and care for the villagers. One day, a man was walking with Ernest past the Great Stone Face and as the man looked at the mountain and looked at Ernest his mouth suddenly dropped open in shock and he said with great joy, “Ernest, you look just like the Great Stone Face.” Suddenly, the man threw his arms around Ernest and shouted again, “Behold! Ernest is the likeness of the Great Stone Face!” Ernest had become like the one he beheld.

We each are asked to become more and more like our maker. But in order to mirror Him well, we need to know Him well. If we’re to become like Him, we must first study His face. If we’re ever to be His spitting image, we must come close and adopt His ways.
Our world is in a desperate state of needing to see God. They need His love, His kindness, His grace, and His joy more than ever. You and I are their best chances of seeing Him today.
 

[Ron Otto, Preaching Minister at Lincoln Christian Church in Lincoln]

 

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