Don’t be a cookie cutter Christian
My Mother was known as the “cookie lady” prior to her leaving this earth for her eternal home. One thing that she loved about Christmas was baking cookies. She baked cookies for everyone that she knew. This time of the year, you could go to her freezer looking for some ice cubes for your glass of tea but all you would find would be stacks of cut out Christmas trees and cut out wreaths and cut out stars.
Even though they looked the same, once she decorated those cookies; no two were the same. Likewise, there should never be cookie cutter Christians where everyone looks alike and acts alike. Just as my Mother created each cookie to be unique, so is the same image of our creative and diverse God.
Have you ever had a preconceived idea of what someone was like?
Several years ago, I worked for a well known paper company in customer service. Part of my daily job was to be the go-between problem solver between the customer and the sales rep. Every day for two years I communicated over the phone with my sales rep. We had developed a connection because of our daily interaction with each other. I knew about her family; she knew about mine. We laughed at each other, solved company problems together and sympathized with each other when life brought struggles. Even though this close bond had taken place between us, we had not ever met face to face. I lived in Wisconsin, she resided in California. Despite that barrier, I had a pretty clear vision in my head of what she looked like, based on her voice and my daily dealings with her.
Until one day, I actually got to meet her face to face. She came to Wisconsin to the corporate offices and there she stood in my office, right in front of me. I knew it was her because I recognized the voice but not her face; suddenly it wasnt at all what I had imagined.
My preconceived idea was totally off track.
I suppose 2000 years ago, people also had preconceived ideas of what the Messiah would look like, surely they had no idea what all that He woud be capable of. I’m sure no-one imagined the men who Jesus selected as His disciples would ever be picked. Or that Jesus would be capable of making the blind see and the lame walk.
Not even the scribes or pharisees had invisioned this. Yet, Jesus had come, not to fulfill people’s expectations but to show us Who God really was and who we could become because of Him…
Matthew 11.11 “I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (NIV Bible)
We often have a preconceived idea of what a follower of Jesus should look like – well dressed, nicely mannered, friendly and carries a Bible everywhere they go. However when I read through scriptures, I see many of God’s followers who fall short of these preconceived expectations. To be honest, God does not care about all of that, He has never been concerned with our outer look, instead He looks at our heart. Our hearts don’t reflect who is the least or the greatest, just who is filled with His love.
God is so diverse, that He created us all in His image but yet He created each of us in a unique way to fulfill different goals. I suppose you could say it is like my Mom’s cookies. We start out the same (in God’s image) but then He applies His own spiritual frosting and creates in each of us a unique sweet sensation. It doesnt’t matter if we are rich, poor, powerful, imprisoned, male, femaile, young or old… God sees us for who we are and He has a very specific purpose for each one of us.
Be the unique child of God that He designed you to be and leave the cookie cutters to the bakery (or the sweet old ladies like my Mom)! Don’t be a cookie cutter Christian.
Wow, Amen.