Family Resemblance

1 Look at how great a love the Father has given us, that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him. 2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.
(1 John 3:1-3, HCSB)

Family Resemblance

As a young boy, I would often hear from someone how one of my features resembled either my mother or my father. Some people could actually tell I was their child even if they had never met me. Now as a father, I always enjoy hearing from people who they think our boys look like. Sometimes I have left a room to have someone tell my wife, “I won’t tell your husband this cause I don’t want to offend him, but your children look just like you.” I always laugh at that. I’m not upset if my children look like their mother (I did choose to marry her, you know?).

It’s a fact of life: children share family resemblance with their parents. It might be the way they look, the way they talk, or they way they behave, but children often resemble their parents.

As children of God, we are called to do the same!


The more time that we spend with our Father, the more we should be like Him. John spoke of this wonderful love that the Creator of the universe would call us his children. What depths of unspeakable love that someone so great could love people like us?

He follows it up with a great promise in verse 2 that we will be like him. We should be looking and acting more and more like our Dad the longer we walk with him. We begin to love the things he loves. We begin to hate the things he hates. We begin to reach out to the people to whom he loves. We start changing our lives to make our lives more worthy of being a part of such a great family.

Today, remember who your Dad is and commit to living in a way that people would say, “I know whose child you are. No mistaking that resemblance. You get it honest. You’re God’s child!”