Who Do You Want To Be?
Friday in the Fourth Week of Easter
My dear encountered couples:
“I want to be like Jesus Christ when I grow up.” Ever heard any boy say that? More often we hear them wanting to be like some basketball player, race car driver, guitar player, Rambo type, or occasionally we might hear a son say he wants to be like his father. Girls might tend toward a beauty pageant winner, a movie star, an Olympic medalist, an American Idol, maybe even president of the United States.
Let us hope some of them want to be like their mothers. Jesus says if we want nothing but the best for ourselves, we are to walk in his footsteps.
“I am going to prepare a place for you,” Jesus told the apostles shortly before his death. “You know the way that leads to where I go.” “Lord,” said Thomas, “we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” “I am the way, and the truth, and the life, Thomas. No one comes to the Father but through me.”
When children really admire somebody and want to be like them, they watch their idol, they read about their hero, they imitate him or her as best they can. It is as if they want to become one with that person. It is to be like that with us and Jesus.
If we want heaven for ourselves, we must get to know Jesus by reading about him, studying him, thinking a lot about him, and practice being like him. Do we want to be good and as close to perfect people as we can get? Then make Jesus our idol and the focus of our attention. He is the only realistic way to a heavenly life.
