Get Into Shape!

M

y home is filled with things people have given me over the years.  In each and every room there is some token, some reminder of a dear friend, a family member, or a close confidant who has left, not only an indelible mark on me as a person, but also a tangible piece to remind me of our relationship with each other. 

Some of these mementos hang on the wall, some sit on counter tops, some are in my cabinets, and some are sitting on my desk and even now I am looking at them.  One such piece sits just below my computer’s monitor and I see it every time I am in the study, and I am in the study a lot.  The piece was given to me by very dear friends and it is unique to me.  It is my name, made from lead, formed in such a way as to be used in a printing press.  When I see the name, it is backwards but when it is inked and applied to paper, it comes out just right.

In the spring of each year, there is a medieval festival close to hear and this piece came from that fair, from a craftsman who poured lead into molds to create type which could then be used to write almost anything.  This piece has occupied my mind on more than one occasion as I have reflected on the process of taking a hunk of metal with no purpose, specific shape or form, and turning it into something useful.

The process of making my name in lead type is not unlike the process God uses to make us into the image of His Son, Jesus.  Are you aware this is God’s goal for you?  Do you know that his desire is to mold you and shape you until you are the exact image of Christ?  If this is news to you, please read Paul’s statement in Romans 8:29, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

This verse has given scholars, theologians, and a host of others much to think about.  It contains the words predestined and foreknew and has led to considerable debate on both sides concerning God’s sovereignty and man’s free will.  I do not have the answers to these questions and they are, for me, an on-going study.  But the word conform I do understand and it is that word I want to concentrate on today.

To be conformed to something, there must be change.  The lead destined for movable type must be altered from its natural state.  It must be heated to the melting point and poured into a container which will change its shape.  The success of the lead is judged by how closely it conforms to the original mold.  The mold is perfect and, in order to bear its likeness, the lead must be worked, smoothed, heated, and struck.

Sounds kind of violent from the lead’s point of view, doesn’t it?  Yet, every one of these steps is necessary to make the lead resemble the letters that are destined to turn thoughts into words that can be shared.  In the same way, God heats, melts, breaks, and removes everything in our lives that keeps us from resembling Jesus Christ.  His one goal is that we be conformed, or made into, the very likeness of his Son so that we can then share him with others. 

Wherever you are today in your walk with God know that he loves you!  He sent his son to die for your sins so that you could be conformed to his image and have a right relationship with the One who made you!  The conforming process isn’t always easy; but it is necessary.  Are you letting God get you into shape today?