“ME...STILL ME!”

  IDENTITY THIEVES

The title of this post, "Me...Still Me!" appeared as a caption on a “Pro-Life” poster displaying two pictures. It got my attention because although arresting and true, it seemed incomplete. In the first frame was the photo of a pre-born fetus; in the second was a cute smiling toddler. The point seemed to be that even unborn, the fetus was already an identifiable, unique human being. 

 

I wished there was a third photo of an inwardly beautiful elderly person. In fact, the third picture—which wasn't there—is the identity which is often stolen or lost. The elderly are the same persons who once were in the bloom of youth and prime of life. Nothing has intrinsically changed.

I'm told to be aware these days of “Identity Thieves.” They lurk around in unsuspecting places and ways to pounce on my Social Security number, bank statement, and scraps of paper on which I innocently reveal who I am and what is of value to me. It seems that when people are in the senior season of their lives, they are more vulnerable to having their identity stolen--in more ways than one.

Is it right for someone to ask a person in advanced years, “Who did you used to be?” intimating, however unintentionally, that he or she is not identifiable or of value because he is no longer engaged in what may have been his career? Age doesn't make us “past tense.” My real identity at the core of my inward life can never be stolen, nor can I lose it. After I've retired from my lifelong occupation, I haven't regressed to become a nonentity. My spirit doesn't age, is continually renewable, and is everlasting.

Those of us in our advanced years need to maintain our self-esteem with gratitude to God for who we have become. He has been working on me for a lifetime conforming and transforming me into the image of Christ through all the ups and downs that have shaped me. Roles in life may come and go, but I am a unique person known and loved by God, distinct from all others, unduplicatable, uncloneable. I am a sheep that Jesus as the Good Shepherd calls by name and I answer to it. It wouldn't matter if my name was Jane Doe and there were a million other Jane Doe's, my particular identity would be secure. 

 

In fact, even I may not know who I really am; only God knows. What's more, I expect to be “still me” and uniquely identifiable in the Life after Life throughout all Eternity. No “Identity Thieves” are allowed in the Courts of Heaven, and no longer will anyone question me about my identity.

 The Scriptures promise that in “The Father's House,” as Jesus called Heaven, “we shall know as we are known.” That must mean that no one will ask for my I.D. And I will know everyone else without being introduced!