What do you want to be?

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God – and so we are!” – 1 John 3:1

This Wednesday, John invites us to ask a question of ourselves.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Do you know?

Well, we don’t have to wait long for an answer. John has already given it to us long before we have even asked the question. It’s an answer that came about not as a result of aptitude tests or talent surveys. It’s not an answer that can be arrived at through thoughtful introspection or self-discovery.

It’s God’s answer. It’s the only answer that matters.

But first, before we can shed light on the answer to the question, we must first know who we are, now. We have to know who and what we are in the present before we can who and what we will be in the future. For this, we have chapter 3, verse 1: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God – and so we are!”  

You ARE a child of God!

It wasn’t easy. It took a death and a new life to make it happen. The death of Jesus on the cross, the death of your sin in the Baptismal font. The life of Jesus on the third day, the life you now live each and every day because of Him. God did it all, and He did it for you. He did it, so that you might be called a child of God – and so you are.

That is who you are in the present, and because you know who and what you are today, you know who and what you will be in the future.

The antiquated truism that we all toss around with abandon is utterly true. It sounds something like this: “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” or, “Like father, like son,” or, to quote a sign that Johanna has hanging in the kitchen – “Sometimes when I open my mouth, my mother comes out.”

So, according to John, if you are a son or daughter of God, you are a spitting image of God Himself. More specifically, you are a spitting image of your brother, Jesus Christ. A perfect likeness or representation of the living, breathing, dying, and rising-again God-man. The same Jesus Christ, in whom there is no darkness at all, only light.

So. Child of God, what do you want to study? Where do you want to work? Where do you want to be next year? Next month? What do you want to be doing next week? What about tomorrow? What are your plans for this afternoon?

Today St. John has asked a question of us, and he has given an answer.

God’s answer.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Be like Jesus. 

In the meantime, before you grow all the way up, when you think about who and what you want to be when you grow up – this afternoon, tomorrow, next week next month, next year, or whenever it is – relax. God has the answer.

In whatever vocation you find yourself in, whatever passion you follow, whatever career you pursue – do it with all your might. And do it with gladness, because God is the one who has given you this work. Do it, whatever it is, and in midst of it all – follow the example of your Brother, follow the example of Christ.

Love your neighbor. Be a servant to those around you. Humble yourself.

Because that is what a child of God does. And that is what you are. And because you are a child of God today – when you grow up, when Christ returns, you will be like Him.