Whittling Away

The story is told of a mountain preacher visiting his flock. He came upon one house where an old man was sitting on the porch whittling away at a crude piece of wood. When asked what he was doing, he said he was making an elephant. The pastor mentioned he thought that would a difficult task. To which the mountain man answered, “Not really, you just cut off everything that don’t look like an elephant.”

The apostle Paul tells us that God is conforming each of His children to the image of Jesus Christ. I’ve heard some really profound explanations of how this is accomplished, some of which were very deep expositions on the subject.  But on second thought, maybe they were not really so deep, just muddy enough so you couldn’t see how shallow they really were.

Actually, the procedure is not so complicated. God simply cuts off in our lives everything that doesn’t look like Jesus Christ. It is an ongoing process. It began at our conversion and will end at death or His coming. God has predestined each of His elect to be conformed to the image of His Son. Therefore, He will keep whittling away at us until the replica is complete. For some, the procedure has just begun. With others, a vague form is beginning to show through. And with a host of others, the long process is in its final stages.

It is not so much a look-alike God is conforming us to, as it is an act-alike 1Jn.2:6).