The Imitators

Have you ever imitated anybody?? I have!!  I worked at T.G.&Y. headquarters in the late 1970's and early 1980's.  For the most part I liked my job and I liked the people I worked with and most of the time I liked the bosses that I had.

There was one boss in particular that was always smiling and every morning he would walk down the row of employees in our department and tell everybody "Good morning" and ask them how they were doing.  The week that he went on vacation I decided that I would imitate the boss.  Every morning that he was gone I walked down the rows of people and told them "Good morning" and ask them how they were doing.  It was all fun and we had a few laughs.  The Monday that he came back I was in my seat talking to the person next to me when the boss came up to my desk and thanked me for 'taking care' of things while he was gone.  Then he smiled and went on to the next person.  I was busted and I knew it.  I also knew that no matter how much that I imitated the boss I was not the boss.

My boys, when they were small, were always imitating somebody from transformers to their favorite ball player.  My daughter was a princess or a ballerina.  They all had fun imitating their favorite cartoon character,  ball player or movie star but at the end of the day they went to bed as themselves.  No matter how hard they might want to become a favorite person they could not achieve it.  They could only imitate.

In the late sixties I watched a movie called "Imitation of Life" and even though I was young it made an impact on me.  It was a movie where a singer pretended to be white.  No one knew that her family was of African American heritage.  If they tried to speak to her and someone came around she would talk to them like they were servants.  She was an imitator but at the end she received word that her mother had passed away and she ran to the funeral procession out into the street.  She grabbed onto the horse drawn carriage that was carrying her dead mother and screamed out in anguish, "Mom, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."  It was to late.

We all are imitators and at times we are trying to be somebody else or something that we are not.  There are people that you might want to imitate but there is One that we should always imitate!!.  His name is Jesus.  Not only should we imitate Him we need to embrace Him and accept Him and follow Him.  Don't wait until it is to late!

Who are you imitating today?

1 John 4:17

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁷ This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.

1 Corinthians 4:16

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁶ Therefore I urge you to imitate me

Hebrews 13:7

New International Version (NIV)

 ⁷ Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.