I am going to go on record and say that I don't think you can really tell which parent a baby looks like. I know that this is basically a variation of talking about the weather, and is essentially used as a filler when you aren't sure what else to talk about. Still...I don't think you can tell. Granted, there are exceptions to this, but in the vast majority of cases that six week old baby looks just as much like dad as they do mom. Unless mom has the blondest hair you've ever seen and dad is really dark complected, I dare to say you aren't the exception. Talk to me when the baby is six months or a year old and I might believe you, but not at six weeks.
As proof, I offer the countless times one of our three kids has been said to look "Just like Gabe," only to have someone walk up to me five minutes later and they say "Wow, they look just like their mom!" I will admit, I have been sucked into this game a time or two, but I do my best to avoid it when I can.
So why am I talking about this? I was on my way to the Child Dedication parent meeting on Monday night and started thinking about these things. Then I realized how much this parallels to our walk with God. You see, when someone first makes a commitment to follow Jesus, you can't really tell who they look like. As they age in their faith, it becomes easier (or at least it should become easier) to see that they are looking more and more like Jesus. This is probably where the parallels stop. If my kid grows up to not look exactly like me or my wife Erin, it's not a big deal.
As a Christian "grows up" if they don't start looking more and more like Christ, that is a big deal. Too often, as Christians, we stop growing in our likeness to Christ. For some, it stops shortly after they make the decision to follow Christ. For many, they start looking more like Christ, but stall out as a "toddler". For others, they grow to a mature Christ-likeness and then stop. None of these options are acceptable, and I am willing to bet that none of us are exempt. At some point, we all have stopped growing for a season.
This is the question I am trying to answer for myself, and you should be too...in what ways do I need to change to become more like Christ? Once you answer that, then you can start to figure out what your next step might be. Maybe we need to get a Bible reading plan (or maybe we need to start using the one we started). Maybe we need a mentor. Maybe we need a small group. There are lots of ways for us to take steps, what's your next step?
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