Mini-Me

There was a day when my son wanted to do and look just like me.  It comes naturally to most boys.  I remember strapping on a construction apron and hanging a hammer on my side to look like my dad.  He thought this was great until I began aggressively hammering on the coffee table and fake wood paneled walls, leaving numerous divots all over the surfaces.  In some ways I still want to look like him.  I wish I could grow the full manly beard that he wears…save however, white “Santa Claus” look of it.  In other ways, I would rather, he look like me, and strap on his tool belt and come and help me repair the broken drywall in my basement cause from my own children’s abuse to my home.

When my son was 4 years old I would load him up in the truck and tote him around town with me tending to numerous life tasks and errands.  There were two primary reasons for the necessity of these moments.  First, spend quality male bonding time between father and son.  Second, get the rambunctious rule breaker away from his stressed out mother for an hour or so, which intern helped her regain temporary sanity.

On one such occasion, we entered into the local Napa Auto Parts store, and perched ourselves on the bar stools at the tall counter.  I hiked him up and planted him atop one of the stools, slid one over for myself and began requesting our needed car parts.  As we waited to receive our brakes and calipers, one of the Napa store workers approached with two identical Napa Auto Parts racing caps and put one on each of our heads.  My son was ecstatic, not only did we wear the hats home, we wore them as we worked “together” on replacing the brakes on the station wagon.  My wife was also ecstatic, though having nothing to do with the hats and everything to do with the adding of another hour or so of sanity to her life as we stayed in the garage.  Over the next several years my son would run into his room and don his Napa cap every time he saw mine resting upon my head. 

Today, my son looks more like me than perhaps ever before, although he would never be caught dead wearing the same Napa hat…but I still do.  He probably wishes that he could grow facial hair like mine…as I still wish that I could grow facial hair like my dad.  In many ways, the fact that he is a physical representation of me is beyond his control…genetics takes the major credit for that.  Looks however, are much more than mere appearances.

In fact, when I see my son make a choice that reflects good judgment, i.e. respecting his mother, I see that he looks like me by holding to the values that I have attempted to instill in him.  I think this goes deeper still, as I consider that these are the same values that had been instilled in me…and the values that had been instilled in my father as well.   When my son chooses to live in such a way that reflects me…he looks like me…his father.  Additionally, when he lives in this way it also reflects my father and his father.  His life reveals the person he is following.

In the same way does the way that I live reflect who I am following.  As we look at the concluding line of the Lord’s Prayer “…for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen,” Matthew 6:13b, I see that my prayer reflects not what I want, but rather what God wants.  When I can allow the Holy Spirit to align my heart with the heart of God, I will see that as I live this life, my desire is to reveal His kingdom, His power, and His Glory.  May I grow to look like HIM…the Lord and Savior of my life and the world…Jesus Christ.

May you seek the transforming work of the Lord in your life to make you into a “Mini-Me” of Himself.