When Nate died, we had 2 grandchildren, 15 month old Skylar and 10 month old Nicholas. Since then, 4 more little lives have joined our family: Micah, Evelyn, Thomas, and Autumn. Birgitta’s October baby will be a 5^th, bringing the total grands to 7.

The oldest of this passel of children is only 3, but a-lotta lively livin’ has been packed into the 2½ years since Nate left us. Because I believe every new life originates with God, I enjoy the thought that somehow our Lord, acting in love, has given Nate knowledge of these 4 little ones.

As I look at their angelic faces, once in a while I get glimpses of my husband. It’s the wonder of ancestry that facial features from a grandpa could reappear in his grandchildren or even in generations not yet born. We see this in something as simple as hair color. Nate and I were surprised when our first child came out with red hair, so we looked for other “carrot-tops” in our family tree. To our surprise they were dotted on both sides, though none in a close generation.

Every physical feature comes from someone else along the genealogy before us, though we may not recognize who or when. Grandpa’s eyes, great-grandma’s smile, auntie’s cheekbones. Yet in God’s unlimited ability to make each individual unlike any other, when he puts the recurring pieces together, each person turns out to be unique.

Far more important than someone’s physical characteristics, however, is the heart, and I don’t mean the lubb-dubb kind. Although most physical hearts look alike, it’s our emotional hearts that God is keenly interested in, and each of those is one-of-a-kind. He’s especially curious about whether or not our hearts beat for him.

If we daily seek after him with a desire to do life his way, the delightful result is that we’ll gradually become more like him. Some of his characteristics will appear in us, similar to the way the physical characteristics of our ancestors pop up one generation to the next.

Folklore tells us there’s one other way to look like someone else: stay married for a long time and you’ll begin to resemble your spouse. Maybe it’s a result of mirroring each other day after day or looking across the table and picking up each other’s mannerisms. Maybe it’s the result of eating the same diet or breathing the same air.

Whatever the reason, in our efforts to become more like Christ, it’s a pretty good idea to “look across the table” each day and see the Lord. If we watch what he does, obey his instructions, and eat a steady diet of his Word, we’re bound to start looking like him.

“We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him.” (1 John 3:2)