Photo and Commentary ©2023 by Darren Milam
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
On a recent trip to Denver, we had a chance to visit the Botanical Gardens. We were not disappointed. The grounds were amazing, full in bloom of just about every flower you could imagine, including this beautiful water lily. As you can see, I wanted to capture this nearly perfect reflection in the water, with the floating lily pads encircling the flower and its imitator.
When you hear the word imitator, what are your initial thoughts? For some, the thought could be negative. For others it may be positive. For all, it certainly makes a difference in what is being imitated.
In 3 John, the author (John) is writing his last epistle and is reminding his friend Gaius (and other church members) that WHAT you imitate is critical. He doesn’t leave it as a reminder of – “make sure you imitate.” No, he ensures there is a good and bad way to imitate.
3 John 1:11 (ESV) “Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.”
What we see and reflect is not only critically important in our own lives but the lives of others as well. Jesus was the perfect example of that ‘reflection’ (as He was not imitating anyone) of God’s true character. As humans, we have to reflect and imitate. When we choose the correct One, it turns out way more beautiful than this lily.