You look just like...

For the last week, my friends on Facebook and I have posted pictures of celebrities that people often tell us we look like. It has been funny to see how other people see people and the reactions people have had to the posts. I put up LISA BONET because, ever since the first episode of THE COSBY SHOW that is who I have been compared to. There was even one Christmas when, while shopping in the mall, a gentleman approached me and asked for my autograph. It took me a good ten minutes maybe to convince him that I was not “that girl from that show on Thursday night” – and even then, he insisted that I give him an autograph. So I did. (I wonder if he kept it). I have also been compared to Tisha Campbell (Gina from the show MARTIN), Janet Jackson (when she played Penny on GOOD TIMES) and Kim Fields (when she played Tootie on THE FACTS OF LIFE). Of all those very beautiful ladies, I can only see the resemblance to Ms. Bonet – and then, only fleetingly.

On a non-celebrity basis, it is always my mom that I get the “you look just like” comment. And as I get older, it is more pronounced. It is very weird to see it coming to fruition cause I used to always think I looked more like my father, but as I get older, the RACHEL in me is truly coming out. I even see it myself these days, but there was a time when I was in deep denial about it. “I don’t look like her” I would say, stamping my feet in frustration…”why can’t I just look like me?” Not that my mother is not a beautiful woman – I just wanted my own place, my own identity in the world. But too many times (especially lately), I have been approached by people who say, “without even asking you, I know who you belong to ‘cause you look just like your momma”. I just accept it now – and sometimes, I don’t even sigh about it. Sometimes.

I am waiting for the day for someone to say to me, “You know…you look just like I expect Jesus to look like when I see Him in heaven.” Now THAT would be compliment beyond measure. Wouldn’t it be nice for someone to recognize and see Jesus in you? As Christians and children of the King shouldn’t that be our aim and goal? I think so. The “trick” is to live your life in such a way that this becomes the reality.

The sermon I heard in church today (by the younger brother of our pastor) was entitled JUST KEEP SHEEP. One of the main points of the sermon was “greatness doesn’t come without faithfulness.” Meaning, it is by being faithful in the “small things” that God prepares us for the greatness that is within us. If I want to reflect and “look like” Jesus, I have to be faithful in the small things – in the places where He puts me or allows me to be placed, I have to reflect His character. For me, that might mean smiling a welcome to the visitor sitting next to me at church. Or sending a get well card to a random person on the sick and shut in list. Or picking up the phone and calling the church member you haven’t seen in the last two or three weeks. That might be the “small thing” that God is asking me to be faithful in…you have to determine where He is calling you, because we each have a call. What is yours?

“You look just like Jesus” Yep, that would be the greatest compliment ever, don’tcha think?

Be blessed.