Shine

An old Serbian proverb advises, "Be humble, for you are made of the earth. Be noble, for you are made of the stars." It doesn't take much to accept the first part, but believing the second part is a challenge. Could it ever be true that we contain even just a sprinkle of the sparkle of heaven?

Jesus was a bundle of contradictions, so it's not that surprising that anyone following him ends up caught in the web of his paradoxes, or are we? We are led to believe we are mere dirt and spit brought to life, and in the very next breath we are the image of God, encompassing every ounce of his glory and beauty. no pressure there! Sometimes it's hard to figure out where the balance is. Am I to worthless to go on or to worthwhile to give up? I believe Jesus showed up just to prove the latter.

He even played the game himself for a while. As Philippians says, he was the one " who , being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing..... being in human likeness" (2:6-7). The maker of the stars stepped down to the earth to show us what we're made of; a touch of heaven and a whole lot of earth. He was willing to stoop to our level to show us the heights we could attain.

Jesus Christ is our ideal model for humility in obedience and service. Our thoughts, attitudes, and actions are to be patterned after Christ. His willingness to humbly obey his father is a great example for us. As we take an honest moral inventory of our life, we must humbly admit our faults so we can begin to change our destructive patterns. If we follow Jesus Christ in humility, learning to admit our failures without hesitation, nothing will be able to stop our growth and recovery.


Maybe then it isn't such a contradiction after all. God molded an Adam from the dust of the ground, the earth he already poured his love into and then in one divine kiss, breathed the life of heaven into his soul. We are as much of a creation of what is above as we are of what is beneath us. We have feet of clay and a soul made to soar the skies.

Obedience to God's program is one of the requirements for spiritual growth. But how can we lead a clean, innocent life like he wants us to? We have already admitted that we are powerless over our addictions and circumstances. God not only asks us to live a Godly life , he also provides us the power to do it. He works in us, giving us the desire and ability to obey him. As we get to know God by reading the bible and spending time with him in prayer, he can transform us from the inside out so we can shine brightly before him.

A quirky old country song lamented, "It's hard to be humble when your perfect in every way." Good for a laugh, but luckily, we're daily given reminders of just how far we have to go so that we may resist really ever believing we are that wonderful. At the same time, God lets us keep our starry eyed hearts set on him and the promise of what can be. We remain children of the living God, a noble people with a marvelous inheritance waiting, even while plodding the dusty roads before us.

Question
Humanity and divinity mingled was the gift of Jesus to the world. How can you manifest that combination in your own life to the glory of God and good of others around you?