He’s just like his father …

It was a decade ago, when the Texas Rangers were making a run to get to the World Series, that I listened to a local radio personality tell the story about a father and son.

He had pulled into a gas station that morning and saw a man with graying hair and wearing a Rangers shirt fueling up his pickup truck. A younger male about 20 years old got out of the passenger side of the truck and started talking to the other man. He, also, was arrayed in Ranger gear, from his shirt to his hat.

He watched the two men as he fueled up his own car, and finally came to the conclusion this must be a father and son who were getting an early start out to the ballpark in Arlington to catch the Ranger game. He was taken with the idea that, even though the son wasn’t a boy any more, he and his dad still made time to take in a ball game together.

The scene touched him enough that he approached the men and told them he thought it was great they were still making time as father and son to share their interests.

“Thanks!” said the father.

“So you’re on your way to the ballpark?” the radio guy asked.

The two men looked at each other, then shook their heads.

“Too much of a headache to fight all that traffic,” replied the younger man. He then explained he and his dad were heading out to watch the game on the multiple big screens … at the local topless bar.

That wasn’t quite the warm, fuzzy story the local radio personality thought he was witnessing. But it was a true story of a father and son sharing mutual interests, a modern-day version of “like father, like son.”

Fathers and sons who love each other share mutual interests. “Like father, like son” too often means a father leading his children into the same path of sin he pursues.

As Christians, God calls us into a relationship of Father and son (or daughter) with the intent of that relationship being “like Father, like son.” God desires to share His “interest” in holiness with us, and invites us to join in holy living with Him.

“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children,” Ephesians 5:1.

Are you following the example of your heavenly Father? Are His interests yours?

Scotty