He Is No Imitation

Rushing down the grocery aisle, my eyes darted across the plethora of cracker choices. Anywhere from a circle, to a square, a triangle, and even animal shapes were shouting out at me to taste them. Grabbing the least expensive choice in the cheddar snack cracker category, I wrapped up the rest of my shopping, checked out, and headed towards home.

A long day of shopping can make a girl hungry, so I opened up the animal shaped crackers and began munching along to a favorite tune. As my snacking continued, I noticed that the cracker did not have much flavor. Actually, it was rather bland, but I guess I should not have been surprised considering that my choice was an attempt to imitate the original Pepperidge Farm Goldfish.

The more I thought about this imitation cracker company and how they gave their best effort to resemble the flavor, texture, and even somewhat the shape, it just wasn’t the same.

I think at times, we do this with God. Maybe we tried to recreate an experience or encounter that we had with Him, but the outcome seems empty. Or, maybe we have sought to imitate His life, but our attempt just seemed fake because we were just going through the motions. Other times we have believed lies to justify and reason with ourselves only to realize that it was all a ploy of imitation from the great imitator himself, Satan.

God has called us to see with spiritual eyes and to not be deceived by those who aim to imitate the one true God.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. (James 1:16-17)

There is only one God, one true king. He is pure, righteous, and holy. When we seek Him out for who He truly is, then we are able to recognize the difference between what real and what is a vain undertaking to imitate God.