“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.”
Ephesians 5:1-2 NLT
One day while I was at the mall, I watched a little girl try desperately but unsuccessfully to convince her family of something she’d seen. It wasn’t that she hadn’t seen what she described to them, but that each time her family came around to checkout what she described, they saw nothing. She was so frustrated as her mother and siblings practically dragged her off down the mall. The little girl wasn’t making up a story; I’d witnessed the same thing she had. Two boys would come to the front of a store and position themselves in the display window, standing perfectly still, or posing, like mannequins. Many people didn’t see them or passed by without acknowledging them. When any passersby stopped to investigate, and noticed that they were indeed real people, they’d laugh victoriously and run back into the store, away from the window and out of sight. They repeated this little trick over and over, more elated with each surprised ‘victim’. They were children having fun at the expense of others. My daughter recognized that they were not really mannequins when one of the boys blinked. The little girl saw one of the boys blink also, and they were discovered, so they ran away. By the time the girl got her family to come back over to the store, the boys were gone. Her family never witnessed their mannequin imitations and subsequently didn’t believe her story.
Sometimes people have a hard time believing our stories when we tell them we are followers of Christ because we don’t really reflect Him very well. We don’t love others (especially our enemies). We don’t resist behavior that runs contrary to godly character. We only imitate the qualities of Christ that we are comfortable with and ignore the ones that will challenge us to be tested and grow in spiritual maturity. When challenged, we ‘blink’ and are discovered to be lacking in Christlikeness. Today’s Dose verse calls us to follow God’s example in everything that we do. God desires for us to be like Christ Jesus—to act like Him and think like Him. As difficult as it may seem to imitate Christ in all we do, we must remember that nothing is impossible with God. We can ask Him to intervene in our lives with His supernatural power. He’s waiting and willing to help us be transformed into Christlikeness.
Are you imitating Him in everything today, or are you poised to ‘blink’?
By grace through faith,
Rita
