In Like Manner
13 Then He went up the hill; and those whom He Himself chose He called, and they came to Him.
Mark 3:13 (WEY)
19 Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner. 20 For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and greater works than these will he show him, that ye may marvel. 21 For as the Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, even so the Son also giveth life to whom he will.
John 5:19-21 (ASV)
I really didn’t realize what was going on at the time, because often I failed to regard what Mom and Dad were doing as all that significant. Growing up, they were making Godly choices, though, with regard to every aspect of our lives- the way we dressed, talked, spent our money, ate, had fun and worshiped God. While there were certain overall choices that were not left up to us (where we would live, whether or not we would go to church, how we treated each other), there were many things, like toys to play with, books to read, and friends to hang out with, that they let us choose on our own, within reason. Though many areas of choice were left to us, there were always examples being lived out before us in the lives of our parents that greatly influenced our perspective and ultimate choices in all of these areas. Whenever any life choice is being made even to this day, there is an internal reference being made to what Mom or Dad would do in that situation. Though the choices are completely mine, there are very few areas that haven’t been touched in some way by what was and is being seen in my parents.
Something that has also been so precious with regard to my parents through the years is their complete support and encouragement of major choices I’ve made. Though I’m sure they’ve not been without some very strong feelings about where I’ve gone and what I’ve done, they’ve never dictated to me exactly what it was I should do. They just continued to live out an example before me. My successes and failures haven’t been due to their dictation, but theirs has always been a great example of the way to a righteous and Godly life.
In pursuit of a God who is wisdom and holds all of creation in His hand, it can seem like He should dictate to us our every move and every choice. I found it interesting, though, in these two passages about Jesus, that the choice of who he would hang out with and to whom He would give life was totally up to Him. I had always understood what Jesus said here to mean that He would somehow get His direction for every move by what He got directly from His Father for that moment. It clearly says, though, that Jesus confidently made choices according to His own will after observing how His Father made choices. I believe the Father was completely in support of every choice made by Jesus according to His own will, and in fact the final act of Jesus with regard to His death on the cross was even left up to Him. There was an overriding purpose, but the details were left up to Him, although He could do nothing without being influenced by the incredible example of His Father. Though choices were His alone, their success had everything to do with His exposure to what He saw so consistently in the One He passionately loved.
There are so many choices to be made. Every day is full of decisions that will determine our success or failure in life. Though there will be times when the overall purpose for our life in Christ may necessitate something that we wouldn’t necessarily like, most of the time there can be great confidence in knowing our choices are supported and encouraged by the One who knows our every move. Rather than dictating every move to us, He wants to be the example of wisdom that is ever before us to be observed and emulated. The sounds produced by the student musician’s movements and expression will always be his alone, but how much greater their opportunity for beauty when there has been intense instruction from and observation of the virtuoso. So our way can be in ‘like manner’ as His, bringing glory to and directly reflecting the One who has been our great and ever-present example.