A whole new industry has arisen out of people who happen to look like famous people.  Look-alikes are much in demand.  That lady who looks like the Queen is often to be seen on television or in films, as indeed are those who happen to look like famous pop-stars or politicians or sporting personalities.  If you bear a close resemblance to Posh and Becks then your future in the look-alike business will be assured and your fortune made.  They are in demand simply because of their resemblance to the rich and famous.

Then again there are those competitions at pet shows for the owner who most resembles their dog.  Mike Yarwood of old and Rory Bremner today have themselves become rich and famous because of their talent for mimicry and their ability to impersonate stars of stage, screen and television.

I remember when I was a thin, clean-shaven young curate in the late 1970s people used to liken me to Derek Nimmo (he who played the Revd Mervyn Noote, the bishop's chaplain in that long-running t.v. series of yesteryear "All Gas and Gaiters").  Then as the years passed by a number of people pointed to a similarity to Stephen Fry! Now that, like Esau, I am an hairy man I could have sworn I saw Henry VIII in profile when I glanced in the bathroom mirror the other day.  That was a rude awakening indeed followed by a resolve to get out on that bicycle more often.

Look-alikes are a cause of fascination.  It occurs to me that if we want the world to be a better place we should all endeavour to become look-alikes not of the rich and famous but of the humble carpenter of Nazareth.  No one more perfect has ever walked the face of the earth than Jesus of Nazareth, God's only begotten Son.  Jesus, in every conceivable way, shows us exactly what God is like.  He is the human face of God.  We should all benefit greatly if we resolved to be more Christ-like.  St. Paul tells us that we are God's work of art.  Isn't that a lovely way to describe us as made in the image and likeness of God?

It is quite a complimentary way to describe human beings: just think, when God made us it was as though he was a divine artist loving applying each brush stroke and thus creating in each and every person a beautiful portrait, reflecting his own divine image.  If we thought of one another in those terms, then maybe we might not be so beastly to one another and there would be a great deal less of man's inhumanity to man than we currently see in a world that can so often be a cruel and inhuman place.  Our society would be greatly enriched if we sought more earnestly to see 'the Christ' in one another and to minister to Him in each other.  Each one of us can resolve to be a Christ-like 'look-alike' and work hard at our own personal Imitation of Christ.
 

With Every Blessing,