“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are His dear children.”
Ephesians 5:1 NLT
My phone made the familiar whistle sound notifying me of a text. Enjoying a few days of vacation, my daughter was sharing a beach picture of her hubby, Ed, and their oldest, Lucia. He was enjoying the vast beauty of the ocean, so Lucia had followed suit in mimicking her father’s stance. There was no mistaking that Lucia was her father’s child (see the picture).
What a clear visual this illustrated of the resemblance between God and His children. For the followers of Christ, the Scriptures speak of imitating God; reflecting His glory; walking as Christ walked. We have been created in the very image of God. We are to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ; to put Him on; to be changed into His glorious likeness.
In the everyday reality of life, do others recognize that you are a child of the King? Do your actions emulate those of the humble, meek, and loving Son of God? Can kindness, compassion, and joy be seen on your face because you favor the Father? When you speak are your words encouraging, truthful, and filled with grace like those uttered by Jesus?
Simply put, we need to be looking and acting like our Father. That will only happen when we spend lots of time with Him just like a child with 
their parent. Watching. Listening. Drawing close. Loving. Trusting. Imitating.
Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with Him and learn a life of love…His love was not cautious but extravagant… Love like that. Ephesians 5:1-2 MSG
[Digging deeper – John 13:15; Romans 8:29, 13:14; 2 Cor. 3:18, 5:17; Eph. 4:24; 1 John 2:6]
Longing to be like Him,
Beverly <><
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.