Dressing up

"Its very first words are Our Father. Do you see what those words mean? They mean quite frankly, that you are putting yourself in the place of a son of God. To put it bluntly, you are dressing up as Christ. If you like, you are pretending... you are a bundle of self-centered fears hopes, greeds, jealousies, and self-conceit, all doomed to death. So that, in a way, this is dressing up as Christ is a piece of outrageous cheek. But the odd thing is that He has ordered us to do it."

-C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity

Mere Christianity is one of my favorite books. Lewis creates such wonderful ways of illustrating what it means to have faith and exercise that faith. In this section, Lewis is explaining how we become more like Christ- through practice. He likens our prayers (specifically The Lord's Prayer) and how we mimic the way Jesus addressed God...thus making us sons and daughters of God.

Lewis then goes on to describe how humorous it must seem for such flawed people to put on such a front... claiming to be children of God. However, he then draws a parallel to young children playing house: they are essentially practicing roles and what it means to be an adult- so it is as much an exercise as it is play. Sooner than you think, Lewis explains, that pretend will become reality... and our front will become more of our real being.

Today, practice being a child of God. Compose yourself as Jesus would (I know that's bordering on a cliche from the mid 90s), but maybe try to pretend a little today and maybe it will rub off on your "true" self so that you become more like Christ.

"He destined us for adoption as His children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will," Ephesians 1: 5