Keys to the Kingdom
By Carolyn Tucker
Jack’s Snacks
One evening, while home alone watching one of my favorite movies and eating dry-roasted peanuts, I whispered, “I’ve turned into my dad.” When I was a kid, Dad and I would watch TV in the evenings and he’d always eat popcorn, mixed nuts, or salted peanuts in the shell. He actually had a microwave cart (as an end table) beside his swivel rocker because he stored his snacks in it. Just in the last few years I‘ve adopted his snack habit (minus the microwave cart). There’s always bits and pieces of our parents in us because that is God’s design. Most of us are younger replicas of our mom or dad, or a combination of both. DNA is powerful and cannot be denied or erased. Jesus said, “When you look at Me you are seeing the One who sent me” (John 12:45 TPT).
When all the disciples were together, I think Jesus may have been saddened or disappointed with Philip’s statement, “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied.” “Jesus answered, ’Don’t you know Me, Philip? I have been among you such a long time! Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. So how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Don‘t you believe that I am in the Father? Don‘t you believe that the Father is in Me? The words I say to you are not just My own. The Father lives in Me. He is the One who is doing His work“ (John 14:9-10 NIRV). Like Father, like Son.
While on earth, Jesus perfectly represented His Father in every aspect. All believers have a heavenly Father that’s perfect and awesome in every way. “Since you are children of a perfect Father in heaven, you are to be perfect like Him” (Matthew 5:48 TPT). If we take this verse out of context, then it sounds like a counsel of despair and impossibility. But in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is teaching on how to treat others (see Matthew 5:43-47). We are to aim at being perfect in how we love God and others. We’ll never be perfect in the sense that God is, but we are to focus on perfecting our love walk.
We are to emulate our heavenly Father rather than the messed-up worldly influencers in our culture. “Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6 NLT). It makes sense that if we claim to be a Christian we must surely live like one.
“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). Maybe this scripture is why Peter Scholtes penned the hymn lyrics, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.” All of our behavior is to be characterized by love. Apostle Peter wrote, “Respect everyone, and love your Christian brothers and sisters” (1 Peter 2:17). If love is AWOL in the Church Body, you can be sure that God is not being imitated.
Many years ago I read the book, “In His Steps” by Charles M. Sheldon. This best-selling Christian fiction novel made a positive impact on my life. The scriptures tell us that Jesus went about doing good. “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! His faithful love endures forever” (1 Chronicles 16:34). God is love and He is good. We are imitating Jesus when we live our lives filled with love and go about doing good.
The Key: I doubt that God eats peanuts, but we should imitate Him anyway.