My Son's Imitation

Last week, before my family came to visit, I finally got around to one of the items on my wife’s “honey-do” list. I had previously mounted my daughter’s curtains too low so the light was still coming in at the top. So I got my tools out and a chair and began to remount the curtains a little higher. My two year old son saw what I was doing and approached me intrigued. Anything done on a chair is awesome as far as he’s concerned. He watched me for a little while then went to ask mommy for his plastic tools, or “chools” as he pronounces them.

When he found his way back carrying his plastic pliers I was finishing up the remount and I must say I did a great job. The curtains were level and I only had to redrill holes twice. I finished and left the room to go put my tools away. When I came back I found my son with his plastic pliers pretending to fix things while on the chair. He would touch his pliers to the blinds and then the dresser and then say, “ee ix it.” Which is Lukaguese for, “I fixed it.”

When I saw this scene it hit me. You know what I’m talking about, those moments when your heart opens its eyes and sees familiar things in a different way. My son wants be like me. He is learning from everything I do and imitating it. He is not just imitating it in a Simon-says kind of game, but he seriously wants to become like me. The only way a two year old knows how to be like me is to imitate me.

So, I could write about what a big responsibility it is to model good behavior and good character for our kids, but you already know that. What I want to encourage you to do is to remember who you are to be imitating. Ephesians 5:1 says, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.” I believe that a natural response to loving God is imitation, just like my son’s love for me prompts him to pick up plastic tools.

God wants us to know that we are his children and that we are “dearly loved.” When we recognize how loved we are by God we won’t be able to help wanting to be like Him. Let us all recognize how much God loves us and in response to that love be “imitators” of his holy and loving character. More than anything, even fixing things, which I’m not really that good at anyway, I want my son to imitate my imitation of God. This is what I’ll focus on doing. I hope you will too.