The Power of Imitation

Today, I got to witness what I think is one of the most profound and beautiful moments in a person’s life; baptism. That moment when one makes a public declaration of their faith in Christ. As each person was baptized the pastor said the following words, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Buried with Christ and raised to life.”

The crowd cheered, and family members took pictures, tears were shed, and I imagined in my mind’s eye, that all of heaven was roaring with a brilliant hallelujah! And on this glorious Florida fall morning, it brought me back to the moment I grasped the magnificent yet mysterious invitation into this new life with Jesus and became His. 

I remember the exact moment I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and I remember the day I was baptized. BUT…I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Let me be clear, I never doubted Jesus as my Lord nor the truth of the change I experienced, but I certainly had no idea about how to walk this brand new walk, nor how to behave, what to say, how to worship, study the Bible, and all the churchy stuff…not a clue. 

So, what was I to do? I mimicked. Absolutely, positively, mimicked the Christians around me. Whatever they did, I did. For example, every morning, my college roommate, who had been a Christ-follower for several years, would begin her morning on her knees, with her Bible open, and she would read and pray. I watched her. I listened to her. I learned how to pray from her. To this day, my preferred posture of prayer is on my knees. 

Jump forward a few years. I was engaged, and yet again, I found myself not having a clue what to do. I had no idea how to have a healthy relationship with my future husband let alone a relationship that honored God. So, what did I do? I watched. I listened. I mimicked the women in my life that I believed had healthy marriages and were worthy of being imitated. 

Jump four years later, now pregnant with our first baby, and again, had no idea what I was doing. So, I watched. I listened. I imitated those women who were a few years ahead of me in their parenting journey. 

If you think about it, we learn to mimic from the moment our infant eyes are able to clearly focus on the face that holds us, our mother’s. A baby intimately knows her mother’s face and becomes intimate with the emotions that are reflected in that face. A child learns to mimic their mother’s behavior, movements, what she says, and how she says it. How she responds to stress, joy, and so on. Mothers are watched. Mothers are mimicked. Dad’s are too. 

Actually, we all watch and are watched. That’s how we learn. That’s how we grow. Someone, somewhere, whether it's our children, our co-workers, if we are pastors then it's our congregants, it really doesn’t matter what we do, we are being watched.

We need to be worthy of being imitated. 

 Why am I blogging about this particular topic? Well, I found something quite interesting in scripture this week that piqued my interest:

John 5:19 says, “Jesus gave them this answer: Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

Here is the context for this scripture. The Jews were persecuting Jesus because he had healed on the Sabbath (5:16).

Jesus responded to this persecution with the statement My father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working (5:17).

Although the Father ended his work of creation on the seventh day, he never takes a break from his work of caring for the world that he has created. Even on the Sabbath, God still supports the world, and Jesus models his behavior on God’s behavior. The Jewish leaders recognized that Jesus’ words were equivalent to claiming to be equal with God, and so they became even more determined to kill him (5:18).

Ignoring their anger, Jesus told them more about himself and his relationship with the Father and with humanity. His relationship with the Father is an equal and intimate partnership (5:19) characterized by love (5:20a), transparency (5:20b), equality in power (5:21), trust in each other’s judgment (5:22), and shared honor (5:23).

His relationship with humanity determines the destiny of the living and the dead. If the living have faith in him, they will be given eternal life (5:24-25).

In due time, the dead will acknowledge him as their judge (5:28, 29).

The Son is the source of life (5:26) and the judge of all (5:27)

(Taken from the Africa Bible Commentary via Bible Gateway.)

Jesus mimicked the Father. He only does what He sees His Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son does also. 

I am exceedingly grateful for the men and women that I’ve had the honor of learning from, imitating their walk, yes, mimicking them.

Dallas Willard has a beautiful quote from his book, The Spirit of Disciplines. It says, “We should also make every effort to sit regularly under the ministry of gifted teachers who can lead us into the Word and make us increasingly capable of fruitful study on our own.” 

Excellent. Let us be women worthy of being imitated; pointing others to Jesus for His glory.

Lots of Love,

Julia