A deeper knowledge

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. (Ephesians 5:1-2 NLT)

If you want to imitate someone, you must first come to really know the one you want to imitate, don't you? You could see someone walking with a slight limp on their right side and quickly imitate the limp, but to understand the injury that resulted in the limp you'd have to really know that individual. In order to imitate Christ in all things, we must come to know him intimately - not just on a superficial or casual level.

A child will begin to imitate some of the things the parent does very early in their development. If they see the parent sitting a particular way, they may cross their legs like the parent has theirs crossed. They observe and then they incorporate what they observe into their lives. If we want to incorporate what Christ does into our lives, we must do more than just observe him, though. We need to get to know and trust him.

If the parent makes healthy choices such as eating vegetables with their meals, taking long walks, or bathing on a regular schedule, the child is more likely to develop those 'habits' of behavior. The child sees the actions repeated time and time again, helping them to form those habits themselves. The frequency and consistency of the behavior actually encourage the child to develop those same behaviors. If we want to develop Christ's 'habits' of behavior, we have to draw close enough to him to allow them to develop. 

Once we grasp what he does, we might begin to ask why he does it. That is also very natural whenever we begin to see behaviors that we might not fully comprehend. We won't understand God's actions of love until we understand why he loves with such an intensity. We only come to understand the 'why' when we come to know the 'who' behind those actions. He is the one we actually want to get to know and the one we will want to imitate, even though this world offers us all kinds of other examples.

Follow his example and you won't go wrong. In order to follow that example, we must come close enough, frequently enough, and with intentional purpose to understand him. In so doing, we might just find ourselves with 'habits' of love being manifested in ways we didn't know were even possible. Just sayin!