Romans 8:15 – you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

I’m often told that my daughter is obviously mine. Our faces are too similar not to see it. For a long time, I couldn’t see what other people described, because I don’t see my face from the outside. I look in the mirror, I see myself in pictures, but I didn't see my face next to hers and mark the obvious similarities.

A few years ago, using an app on a phone, a picture of us was modified so that our faces were swapped. It was hard to tell the difference except for the color of our eyes. Then I realized what so many people had said.

We are not biological sons and daughters of God, but we have been adopted into his family. We cry out to him, “Abba” a word that is closest to our “Daddy.” Through faith in Jesus, we are grafted into the vine, made children of Abraham, and heirs of all the promises. With God as our father, we cry to him in our needs, with our wants, and when we need comfort and assurance.

Though our faces don’t make us look like our father, we can still look like Jesus through what we do. We have been called to a life that emulates our Savior. We aren’t slaves to it, that by compulsion we do what we do. But living in the grace of God we seek to serve him and follow the direction he gives us.