| Ephesians 5:1 – “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” |
My dad loved to go duck hunting. He and a friend from his work spent numerous hours turning an old boat into a duck blind and they loved to sit on the water with his hunting dog Duchess. With duck calls in hand and decoys floating nearby, they waited patiently for the flocks to come within range.
One year my dad decided he wanted to hunt Canadian geese as well but did not have any geese decoys. I remember sitting with him in his shop while he cut white Styrofoam blocks into various pieces and glued them together to resemble geese of different shapes and sizes. He used a knife to whittle their heads to look as accurate as possible, and then I helped him with the painting. He showed me pictures from a book so I would know what they were to look like. He was so excited to take them hunting the next weekend, and he and his buddy came home with a trunk full of geese. The decoys were so realistic that the real geese could not tell the difference and glided down onto the water beside them. Dad’s imitations were an accurate reflection of the real thing.
Our verse today tells us we are to be imitators of God. But what does that mean, and how do we accomplish it? First off, we need a picture of what we are to look like, and there is no better guide for us than God’s word. But we also need the skilled hands of someone who molds and shapes us into accurate representations of Jesus. Through prayer and instruction from others, we will grow in our likeness of God.
Prayer: Dear God, what I want more than anything is to be like you – to look like you, act like you, and speak like you in this troubled world. Help me to not be afraid to have the excess carved away, but to willingly open my heart to become more like you every day. And may my imitation be such that others are drawn to you. Amen
Betty Gossell
