Many years ago I went to a chiropractor to relieve some back pain I was having. At the time, I had to bring my young children with me and they would sit in the room where I was being treated on the chairs or on the floor playing. One day the doctor told my daughter she should not sit on her knees because it could cause knee problems later in life. I wondered aloud if that was why I had knee problems because I did that a lot and he said, “Well, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” meaning she was similar to me.
I laughed and looked him straight in the eye to reply, “This apple had nothing to do with this tree.” (Obviously he didn’t realize she was adopted.) I was thinking in the physical sense as I was her adopted mother and not her birth mother and so I had not ‘born’ the fruit from my branches. But looking back, I think it was more like the Father grafting us (Rom. 11) to His branches and becoming part of Him; and we are like the fruit that ‘doesn’t fall far from the tree.’
In other words, my daughter became similar to me, not because I bore her, but because we spent so much time together she developed a few of my habits and mannerisms. (Don’t tell her this, she won’t like it!!!) Similarly, in our lives, the more time we spend with the Lord, the more we develop His habits and mannerisms- we become more alike to Him.
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2Cor.
I want to be that apple that doesn’t fall far from the tree of her Father- that loves like the Father loves, that sees the people as the Father sees, that hears the cries of the human hearts like He does and that reaches out in compassion as He always has and always will. I want to be just like my Dad. And one day when we are together forever and I can see Him… well, maybe then the similarities will be apparent.