Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. [1 Corinthians 11:1 (ESV)]
Hearing the bird’s shrill harsh scream, I looked up expecting to see a blue jay. To my surprise, it was a mockingbird. Of all the beautiful songs it can imitate, I wondered why the mockingbird chose the strident call of the jay. Then, remembering how many blue jays inhabit our neighborhood, I realized their raucous “jaaaaay” is what the mockingbird frequently hears so that has become part of his song.
It’s not just mocking birds and parrots who mimic what they hear and see. Years ago, a retired friend told me about spending Christmas with his son’s young family in Minnesota. By December 26, he grew tired of hearing the three youngsters squabble over their new toys and this grandpa decided to enjoy some peace and quiet while shoveling the snow. When his young grandson insisted on helping, he gave the youngster a small child-sized shovel but the boy complained that he wanted the big one. Telling him it would be too heavy, Grandpa refused and started shoveling. When the child kept whining about using the big shovel, my friend used a few ill-chosen words before letting the boy give it a try. Of course, once he started with it, the child cried that it was too heavy. “$@#!&)%!” said Grandpa, “I told you so!” There were a few more profanities when the boy grew bored and started to toss snowballs. Eventually, however, the shoveling was finished. While taking off their coats in the house, the youngster proudly announced to his parents, “We just shoveled the whole $@#!&)% driveway!” You can’t blame him for the bad language; like the mockingbird, he was imitating what he’d heard!
Children never have been very good at listening to and obeying their elders but they are experts at imitating us. It’s been said that we should live in such a way that we wouldn’t be ashamed to sell our parrot to the town gossip (or have our youngsters answer questions like those asked by Art Linkletter in his 1960s show Kids Say the Darndest Things.)
Children mimic more than our words; they model our behavior, as well. For years, the kids and I watched my husband give two hard shakes to the handle after locking the front door to his business. Although he’d turn toward the car, before taking a step, he’d turn back around and give that door handle at least one more hard shake—just to make sure it was good and locked. When we returned north last May, I chuckled as I watched my son do the identical thing after locking the front door of the same business! Both our words and behavior get recycled to the next generation.
Children will imitate both the positive and negative aspects of our behavior. They can learn to be polite, considerate, positive, helpful, truthful, and modest or they can learn to be rude, selfish, negative, uncooperative, deceitful, and arrogant. Do we model the right kind of behavior—not just for youngsters but also everyone we encounter? As Christ’s followers, we should—regardless of how provoked, aggravated, or tired we may be.
My father-in-law, whose given name was Paul, was called “Bill” for most of his 96 years. When asked why, he explained that everyone called him “Bill” because he walked just like a man named Bill. Whose walk do we imitate? To be worthy of the name of “Christian,” we should be imitators of Christ and walk and speak as would He. Do we?
When I saw a wildflower that looked like a helicopter’s rotors, I showed it to the park’s naturalist for identification. Not as impressive as Scarlet Hibiscus or as colorful as Butterfly Weed, she found the plant unworthy of name or notice and wrote it off as “just a weed!” What some people call “weeds,” I think of as wildflowers and a little research told me it was the floret of Egyptian Crowfoot Grass (Dactyloctenium aegyptium). Native to Africa and widely distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics, it is one of the most drought-resistant of grasses.
Do these verses mean I can’t wear my pearl earrings, diamond wedding ring, or gold cross to church? Do I have to say “farewell” to Nordstrom’s and start shopping solely at outlets and discount stores? Although my hair is short, it’s hard to believe my grand’s lovely French braids are inappropriate at church or anywhere else. What did Paul and Peter mean with their admonitions about women’s attire and modesty?
I grew up attending the Episcopal Church at a time when women covered their heads during worship and the men worshipped bare-headed. While not a hard and fast rule in the denomination, it was a time-honored tradition. Women wearing head coverings in Episcopal and Catholic churches began to wane in the 70s and, by 1983, the Roman Catholic church no longer had rules regarding headwear for men or women. The last time I attended an Episcopal or Catholic church, the women were hatless and some of the men wore baseball caps! Although culture plays an important role in the way we dress and behave in church, how do we interpret Paul’s words today? Should I dig out my mantilla and must our pastor toss out his ball cap?
I was married fifty-seven years ago today. When I promised to love, comfort, honor, cherish, forsake all others, and to have and to hold my husband “for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health” until we parted at death, I had no idea just how bad “for worse” could get, how little money “for poorer” might be, or that sickness could mean much more than a case of the flu. I certainly never pictured us growing old with wrinkles, white hair, hearing aids, bifocals, arthritis, and the limitations that come advanced years.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” [John 21:15 (ESV)]
Devotions of the Heart 