Pattern-People

Cookie cutters are fascinating, and can be quite a collector item. I suspect there’s a cutter for just about every shape imaginable. What little baking I do, I’m quite content with whatever shape emerges from the spoon that drops the dough to the pan!

Believers are pattern-people! Spoon-dropped cookies don’t really have a shape; they just fall into whatever conglomeration (now there’s a word for you) that happens. It’s sad but many who profess to be followers of Christ are best described as a hodgepodge of ideas, principles, and behaviors. Much like a landslide that gathers whatever debris in its progressing path, some Christians’ beliefs and behaviors are skewed by the world’s influence. It’s estimated there are approximately twenty-one different major world religions; can you even imagine the varying truths! “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” (Isaiah 30:21). Christ calls us to walk that “highway … called the Way of Holiness” (Isaiah 35:8) as modeled for us by His sinless, perfect life. Jesus Christ is the Way – the Truth – the Life (John 14:6), the Pattern for living and we are called to Its practice in what we believe and how we behave. No, following and living such a life isn’t quite as simple as cutting cookies! But! There is hope, however, by His grace and in His power, we can genuinely be … pattern-people!