Our best striving

(J.R. Miller)

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on" Philippians 3:12

The highest reaches of holiness which we can attain here on earth, are but broken fragments of the full Divine beauty. At the best, we can only become dimly transfigured; only faintly does the beauty of the Lord appear in us.

The last design made by the great painter, Albert Diirer, was a painting showing Christ on His cross. It was all completed, except the face of the Divine Sufferer, when the artist was summoned away by death.

Just so, at the end of the longest and holiest life — we shall have but a part of the picture of Christ wrought upon our soul. Our best striving shall attain but a fragment of His matchless beauty. We cannot reproduce the glory of that incomparable Face. But when we depart from our little fragment of transfiguration, we shall look a moment afterward upon the Divine features, and, seeing Jesus — we shall transformed into His lovely image!

"Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is!" 1 John 3:2