When God makes you whole, you will simultaneously be more fully yourself and wholly different. Recognizable, yet unrecognizable. You, yet not the expected you. The person whom others have always known, yet also someone surprisingly different.
Each of us has a false self that overshadows our true self. The false self is, however, not 100% false. What makes it believable is that there is at least a hint of your true self. When God heals you of your false self, you may be somewhat unrecognizable. But you’re still you.
When Jesus healed the blind man, his neighbors didn’t recognize him—a foreshadowing of his own resurrection.
Foreshadowing of the day when Mary met a gardener but didn’t recognize it was Jesus. Or the day two disciples were on a day-long journey doing a Bible study with a man they didn’t recognize to be Jesus. Or the morning when two other disciples were out trying to fish their blues away, when they didn’t recognize that the man on the shore giving them fishing tips was Jesus.
Until he said her name. Until he broke the bread. Until their nets filled with fish. Through these Jesus was saying, “It’s me!”
When Jesus transforms you so dramatically that others do not recognize you—or perhaps you do not even recognize yourself—it’s because you have tasted the resurrection. It’s because your false self has begun to crack and peel away, and your true self is shining through. “It’s me!”
