Most of us learned to write by tracing letters. At first, our hands struggled to follow the lines. But after enough repetition, something changed. We no longer needed the dots. The shape had become familiar.Peter uses a similar image for the Christian life. Speaking of Jesus, he writes:
“He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.”1 Peter 2:21 NLT
The word Peter uses for “example” carried the idea of a writing pattern placed before a student to copy. Jesus is the pattern.Which means the Christian life is not simply believing the right things about Jesus. It is spending enough time following Him that His way begins to shape ours.We are all tracing something. We can practice irritation until irritation becomes instinct. We can rehearse resentment until resentment becomes part of us. We can become so accustomed to defending ourselves, proving ourselves right, or responding to hurt with hurt that we hardly notice what those habits are making of us.Jesus gives us another pattern.His strength did not require cruelty. His courage did not require contempt. He could speak truth without hatred and suffer wrong without allowing evil to reproduce itself through Him.Following Jesus means returning to that pattern again and again, especially when our instincts pull us somewhere else.Eventually the question is not simply, What do I believe?It is, What is all this believing making me become?
“We do not defend the way of Jesus by abandoning the way of Jesus.”
Keep your eyes on the pattern. Keep tracing Jesus. Over time, by His grace, His shape begins to appear in us.
