Update: Congratulations to Beth for winning the $25 gift certificate to (in)courage!

I want to push you, swiftly and hard.

Not in the way that bruises knees and pride but in the way a mama bird nudges her lovies out of the nest.  She knows they’re capable of doing so much more, that they only need a little encouragement.  Mama knows they’ll soon find out she wasn’t being mean after all, that she just wanted them to experience Great Things, Wide Open Spaces…and what they were designed to do.

It slays me to know I’m created in the image of God; I can barely think on it.  I don’t think it’s even possible to comprehend fully all it means. 

If we’re called to be imitators of Christ, to look like the One whose image we bear, what does that mean?  What are the first qualities that come to your mind?  To love lavishly and without condition?  To forgive freely even when you’ve been wronged?  To serve sacrificially and to consider others’ preferences above your own?