A Chip off the Old Block

At harvest time, I’m reminded especially of my father.  One of my early memories is of accompanying my mother as she took his tea to him in the harvest field.  On the face of it, I’m not much like my dad.  For as long as I can remember he was a portly fourteen stone compared to my (now admittedly increasing) twelve.  To date I have lived at eleven different addresses, while dad, in all of his eighty years and two days, moved house at the ages of three, six and forty-two, and never ventured at all beyond Norfolk or Suffolk.  I was privileged to spend seven years at the local grammar school.  Dad left school at thirteen or fourteen to work with his brothers on the farm: I collected ‘O’-levels and ‘A’-levels, but had no siblings.

And yet, more particularly as I grow older, I notice similarities: that same set of the jaw when puzzled, displeased or concentrating; the way I put my hand to my face when relaxing with a book.  Like dad, my pen sits in my right hand but, whenever two hands are required for a task, I fit his comfortable Norfolk description ‘left hand a-fore’.

Jesus resembled his Father.  When Philip asked “show us the Father”, our Lord’s response was, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8-9).  What greater parental resemblance could there be? 

There are other similarities to consider.  Genesis tells us that we were created in God’s own image (Gen. 1:27).  How many common characteristics does that give us with our heavenly Father?  Given that statement, we must accept that at the outset our similarity was 100%, but the influence of the sinful world in which we live has inevitably reduced that.

We are exhorted to “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt. 5:48); Matthew also passes on to us the advice Jesus gave to one young man who sought to comply with this instruction.  “Go, sell your possessions and give to the poor … … then come, follow me” (Mt. 19:21).  Like many instructions, we shouldn’t respond to this one blindly in isolation - after all, selling all our possessions and giving away the proceeds would leave us unable to support ourselves: we would be poor and in need of the give-aways from someone else: an unsustainable vicious circle.

So what are we to do?  Most important is the end of Jesus’s remark: “follow me.”  I have always been inspired by a quote ascribed to St. Augustine: “Love God and please yourself.”  If our first priority is to love our heavenly Father, to read and study His word - metaphorically to ‘sit at His feet’ - then our wishes, desires and pleasures will naturally incline to His will.  As harvest time comes round again, may I suggest you consider what is the harvest of your life.  Are you reaping the abundant rewards of resembling your heavenly Father?