Children learn by imitating the behaviors of the people around them.  Speech is learned by mimicking sounds and then connecting those sounds to objects, people or ideas.  A toddler playing house will reenact events that have happened in her own household.  Our children are, at times, a rather uncomfortable reflection of ourselves.  And just as they learn by imitating us, God's children learn by imitating Him.

To be a child of God means to strive everyday to follow His word and live out his commands.  Christians look to Christ as the example we are to follow.  And just as with our own children, imitating Christ is a process.  In the beginning of our faith walk, we learn to imitate the Lord's Prayer and to recite the Ten Commandments.  My son memorized books from my reading them alound long before he could read them.  Only after he had memorized letters, imitated the sounds I made for each letter, and watched how those letters came together to form words, could he read on his own.  Now, after years of practice, he writes his own stories.

The true point of this lesson is that it is okay to be a Christian and still have questions.  God knows he did not give us clear cut answers to everything.  He did give us a way to learn them, though, through the process of learning by imitation.  As we memorize and begin to apply what we have learned, we discover new truths just like my son writing his own stories. 

God prepares each lesson carefully for us as we do for our kids.  I know that my son can't learn to work algebraic equations before he can perform basic addition, subtraction, muliplication and division.  His brain is not developed enough in kindergarten to understand the abstract formulas of trigonometry or calculus.  But through years of imitation by doing math homework and copying teacher's lessons, he will one day be able to.  

If you have questions about faith, or the Bible, or concepts of Christianity, don't get discouraged.  Keep practicing by imitating Christ.  Even if you don't understand right now, someday soon God will deem you ready and reveal a whole new level of His awesome power and grace and omniscience.         

Bookmark with: