You cannot go to the world to find out who you are; you must go to God and then bring who you are to the world. For there are no small parts or insignificant roles in the Larger Story. God made everyone, everything, and every day epic. That’s a hard lesson to learn. One of our greatest challenges as image bearers is to resist and overcome the gravitational pull to live small.
It was C. S. Lewis who wrote, in The Weight of Glory,
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. . . . Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbor, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself is truly hidden.
Paul writes to the Corinthians,
We all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17–18)
Hm . . . “ever-increasing glory.” That sounds pretty good. Yes, all glory and honor is due God—he has, and he gets, the capital-G Glory. But he radiates it through us. We are “born of God” (1 John 5:1), and his spiritual DNA is in us. We bear the family resemblance to our Father. We may fall, but we don’t fall far from the tree, “for in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
The life God has afforded us is far more than just “being saved” and hanging on until Jesus parts the eastern sky. It is far more than just trying not to sin. The Father, Son, and Spirit intend to carry out their original plan for creation, sharing their glory and kingdom with the sons and daughters of God. Jesus said, “I pray also for those who will believe in me through [the disciples’] message. . . . I have given them the glory you gave me” (John 17:20, 22).
If God is giving us glory, he must want us to discover it, protect it, enjoy it, and offer it.
