When you do an activity for the first time, how do you go about completing that activity? There is a chance that you will pay attention and watch someone else who is already completing it. That may be following someone, copying someone, acting like someone. Often, in order to do the activity you need to see someone else do it first.

We are called to imitate God in this life, but how do we do that? Our thought for the week comes from C. S. Lewis who says:

“Our imitation of God in this life…must be an imitation of God incarnate: our model is the Jesus, not only of Calvary, but of the workshop, the roads, the crowds, the clamorous demands and surly oppositions, the lack of all peace and privacy, the interruptions”

Essentially we should read the Gospel stories, see how Jesus lived his life, and live in the same way: talking to people that others rejected; speaking to crowds; challenging the religious and political leaders.

We may struggle to follow Jesus himself but there may be other people who we can imitate, Paul wrote to the Church in Philippi saying:

“Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ”

The best way to imitate is to follow the example of others, and you never know, you may end up being the example that other people imitate.