One of the joys and horrors of having kids is to see them imitate you. There are times when kid’s imitation is the cutest thing ever and there are times their imitation teaches you a lot about yourself and things you need to change. I love seeing my boys play with their tools. They get into things and try things that somewhat resemble things they have seen me do. It warms my heart. But here’s the thing…they don’t ever actually fix anything and the things they are “fixing” are only “broken” in their imagination. They tools they are using are plastic and aren’t actually doing anything. Nonetheless, they are imitating their daddy and it makes my heart glad.
In 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul had something to say about imitation, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.”
Obviously, we will never be able to be perfectly Christ-like in our behavior but we can still imitate him. Imitation doesn’t ever mean exact duplication. It means watching and doing what we see. When a child imitates a parent, the outcome and even the approach will vary from what they see but the lesson is the same – we are to watch Jesus and try our best to do what we see him doing. It might be like me and my boys at times…their tools may be plastic and they might not ever fix anything completely on their own but they are imitating their dad and in doing so, they are growing to become more like their father.
So don’t be discouraged if you can’t do all Jesus did…keep on watching him and keep on doing what you see him doing and know God is looking down on our effort as any loving Father would…proud of our attempts to imitate what we have seen in Him.
