Mondays are community days here at CGA. We gather together and share what we’re learning from Jesus. We also hear from different people what they’re hearing from Jesus too. It’s an encouraging time.
Last Monday one of my closest buddies prayed over all of us to live in our true identity as children of God. I honestly didn’t hear much of his prayer because I heard another familiar voice in my spirit.
I sat there in a white fold-up chair, eyes closed with my right fist under my chin and elbow resting in my left hand which laid across my stomach. It may not seem like a comfortable, relaxed position but it is to me as well as many members of my family.
That’s the posture I was in when a picture of my paternal great-grandmother flashed into my mind. It’s a photo I recognized as one hanging from the wall in the hallway leading to my bedroom. I never met her because she died before I was born but this picture is the one I think of whenever she comes up in conversation or family memories.
And in the photograph snapped of my precious great-grandmother, she’s sitting in the exact same position, fist propping her chin up and resting in her favorite recliner at her New York home. That’s when I heard His voice whisper, “you are a reflection of her and how much more are you a reflection of me.”
I breathed in deeply as those words melted into my spirit.
Then came images of my grandmother and dad sitting in similar cozy positions. Holy Spirit highlighted how this posture is familial, a sign of heritage and belonging to the Tully clan. It wasn’t something taught from generation to generation, but rather something unconsciously observed and done in repetition.
We do what we see done; we say what we hear. And often times, we don’t realize it.
Think about it: an apple tree doesn’t need to think to itself, “I must produce apples, I must produce apples.” It produces apples because it’s an apple tree. It does because it is.
And as Christians, we think, do and say things as Christ because we are his. We give off the fragrance of Christ because we are the fragrance of Christ. Just as he did what he saw his Father do and said as he heard his Father say, we imitate Jesus because we’re intimate with him. We know we’re his Beloved.
I didn’t recognize how often I prop my chin up with my fist like so many Tullys have done before me. I did it because it’s what I saw done in my family; it became one of many striking symbols declaring I’m my father’s daughter.
And so is my life to the Father. I reflect and am the glory of God. I do what He does and say what He says and love how He loves because the Holy Spirit in me is the same Holy Spirit in Jesus.
I’m in Him and He in me. We are because He is.
