Mutant Mimics

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love…” (Ephesians 5:1)

 

Some years ago I watched a movie called “Mimic”. In it these giant mutant cockroaches could walk on their hind legs and wrap their wings around themselves, making them look like men wearing robes. That is where the similarity ended.

God does not want us to mimic how we think He looks, nor imitate how we think he sounds. He wants us to display His character, as a child naturally displays their parents character. Specifically He wants us to model, display, imitate His love.

Odds are, a child is going to act like its parents. My wife sometimes acts like her Mother and Grandmother, I sometimes act like my Father. The problem is that we not only pick up their good side, we also pick up their bad side. This means there will come a time in our lives when we find ourselves doing or acting in such a way that we had promised ourselves we never would.

We can look at our children and see how they act like us in some ways even if they are now grown up. I like seeing my good traits in my children, but I don’t like it when they display my bad traits.

In our scripture today, it is clear that we need to know God and spend enough time with Him to “pick up and live out” His love. This is not only how God wants us to be, it is what our children need to pick up from us.

Because we are loved by God, it is important that we live out that love. We are His display board. His reality and character should show through in every one of His children. Scripture says that the reality of Jesus Christ is proven by the love that Christians have for one another.

We do well to say we cannot love like that, for we can’t. It is a supernatural love that is deposited inside us by the Holy Spirit. We have to hang out with our Father and let His love saturate us. Just as we naturally tend to imitate our parents, so we shall supernaturally begin to imitate our Father.

 

God is not looking for people to impersonate Him. He is looking for a people who will love Him and let His love be released through them.