A proud mother was showing off her new son to a group of adoring women when someone remarked, "He is the spitting image of his father." Now I know his father, and he has a thick head of black hair, and the baby had none; the father has a rather long nose, and baby had a pug nose; the father has dark eyes, and the baby's eyes were blue. Personally, I could see no resemblance between the two. But, women have an uncanny ability to see things that I don't see. Evidently they saw evidence that some years hence the child would grow to look like his father. The phrase "spitting image" has come to mean a striking resemblance between two individuals. I am not sure where the expression comes from and how spitting got connected to an accurate reproduction. Perhaps it comes from the practice of cleaning up a mirror by spitting on it and wiping it clean. My twin brother and I were spitting images of one another, especially when we were youngsters. People had a difficult time distinguishing between us. Later on we grew to be less alike, but I am told that our voices were still very similar. I think of pictures that I have seen of genetically identical persons, and they are certainly spitting images of one another.
There is a program on TV featuring what are called "Spitting Image Muppets." These are life size caricatures of famous musicians such as Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, etc. playing instruments and directing an orchestra. These muppets are not exact duplicates of the real people, but one can recognize whom they represent, and thus they are called "Spitting Image Muppets." This is similar to those cartoons of famous people that sometimes are humorous but recognizable.
The Bible states that man was created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Just what that means is a moot question. We are like God in physical features such as bodily structure and appearance. God is described as having hair, eyes, nose, mouth, arms and legs, feet, ears, and fingers. As he came from the hands of the Creator, man was indeed a noble creature, with physical and mental powers but a little lower than the angels. When we look at man today in his degenerate state with some 6000 years of deteriorization, it is hard to imagine the glorious appearance of our original ancestor. Yet, Jesus told His disciples, even after 4000 years of degradation, "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father" (John 14:9). What did He mean by this statement? It certainly didn't mean that He was an exact duplicate. His divinity was enclosed in an unremarkable human body that showed no divine attributes. However, His thoughts and actions were so in tune with the Father that He could say that He was like the Father. You might say that He was the spitting image of the Father. We are told in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5) that we can be like Jesus, that we too can become "spitting images."
