Thirteen months ago today, my youngest niece gave birth to identical twin girls. The last months of the pregnancy were difficult for mother and babies, but finally on March 10, 2009 the twins were born. Because they were premature, they stayed in the hospital for a few weeks. During that time, I had a lot of space to reflect and contemplate the new life just begun.
This picture is one of the many we took, but it was also the most significant. The two sisters were placed for the first time in the same incubator facing each other. To us it seemed like a mirror reflecting back the same face.
To me, this is who we are before God. Made in God's image, we can look in the mirror and see God, and God can look at us and see Godself. Because of the power of Creation and even more of the Incarnation, we all carry inside the sacred spark of the life of God. In many cases this resemblance is hard to see, but the twins revealed to me what IS and often gets clouded by my poor vision.
As time passed, each baby showed their own specific idiosyncrasies. One seems to be more outgoing and extroverted, while the other observes and analyzes before she jumps into a new situation. Yet they continue to look so much alike that their mother put ruby earrings on one and emerald on the other; this way we all know who is who.
Our relationship with God is the same. I do not know who wears which color, but it should be difficult for those who know us to see any difference between our "face" and the "face" of God.
As we grow older our external features change, we get taller, maybe heavier... but our internal face continues to be the same: the face of God.
During this Easter Season I hope that we can always look in the mirror and see God, and that if we ever see a different face we would go back to the picture and remember who we really are!
