A Surprising Way to Imitate God
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children”
Toward the end of Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church (5:1), this brief comment has massive implications. We aren’t only to love God and serve him, Paul says. We’re supposed to imitate him.
On the surface, this is an overwhelming challenge.
Yet Paul is confident that as those who have the Holy Spirit living within us, this is entirely possible.
Like a child playing dress up in their parent’s oversized clothes, we’re encouraged to mimic our heavenly Father. To move as he would, to speak as he would, and to live as he would.
To imitate him.
One question
But how?
How can we imitate the one who weaves life in the womb?
The one who gave the seas their boundaries?
The one who tells lightning where to strike?
While the response to such a question could fill an entire library, I offer one place to start.
Being interruptible.
Interruptible God
This same God who holds the cosmos together and orchestrates the movement of stars is constantly available to his children.
When they call, he picks up.
When they cry out, he hears.
He is never too busy to be present.
And never too swamped with work to save.
Our brokenness and our neediness aren’t an inconvenience to God. They’re the very things that compel him to us in love.
If we’d like to imitate God, being interruptible is a great place to start.