Pattern People

Cookie cutters are fascinating. I suspect there’s a cutter for about every shape imaginable.  What little baking I do, I’m quite content with whatever shape happens when the dough drops on the pan! Believers are pattern-people!   Spoon-dropped cookies don’t really have a shape; they just fall into whatever conglomeration or blob that plops down.  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 spattered with the world’s influence.  It’s estimated there are some 4,300 different religions in the world; can you 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).  Jesus calls us to walk 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) – not a pattern for living but the Pattern for living. Yes, we are called to Its practice in what we believe and how we behave.  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!